To control crime and provide protection to city residents, Dhaka Metropolitan Police is gathering information on city-dwellers.
Under the Citizen Information Gathering Week -2019, information of 150,000 people has been collected. Along with previous records, the database now has details of around 6.4 million people.
The police stations in the capital are going from house to house to gather information about tenants.
“People are more aware than the past and are willingly giving information because they want to live in safety,” DMP Additional Deputy Commissioner Md Obaidur Rahman said.
The permanent addresses of tenants are not being gathered, but this will be done later.
A resident in Hatirjheel voices concern: “The police are not verifying the information of those who are from other districts and currently living in Dhaka.”
DMP’s Ramna division Deputy Commissioner Maruf Hossain Sardar observed: “Everyone is assisting the police in gathering information and since everyone wants to live a trouble-free life, they are giving the information of their own volition.”
Police are gathering information about landlords, tenants, drivers and house help, he added.
“We are gathering information for the benefit of the citizens; such a drive will bring down crime rates,” said Deputy Commissioner Masudur Rahman of DMP’s media and public relations wing.
People living in the slums are also included in the drive. As per the census on floating people, there are around 3,394 slums housing a total of 646,000 people in the Dhaka North and South cities.
As slum dwellers do not live in one place for long, police are giving importance to gathering their information.
Police high ups believe that since floating people live in slums, the shanty towns can easily provide refuge to criminals.