The strikingly demonstrated power and potential of the emerging phenomenon of the Citizen Journalist suggests a simple, inexpensive and effective answer to our crying need for ground-level intelligence. Why can’t the constable, who constitutes the bulk of the manpower in the police force, and who lives and works within the community, be equipped and trained to function like the Citizen Journalist? The equipment can be the same - a cell-phone-cum-camera. They can be trained on how to report with voice, image and text versions, on events, not only while or after they take place but also on anything significant observed before an incident takes place.Our administrators need to shake off the old colonial mindset of treating the constable as a unit of physical force and not of human intelligence.

N. Krishnaswamy, Chennai…(Read Further)