Police stations double up as homes for cops this Xmas

TERROR EFFECT
Police stations double up as homes for cops this Xmas
Preetu Nair | TNN

Panaji: For probably the first time during their tenure in the police force, Catholic police officers won’t be able to go home for their traditional Christmas lunch. They will have to spend their time either at their respective police station or their area of posting, as the Goa police has decided that its men will work 24x7 from December 23 to January 5 due to a terror threat looming over Goa during Christmas and New Year.
However, despite the tension and high pressures, such as an almost unlimited amount of demand versus a limited amount of resources, a desire to respond quickly and thoroughly to incidents that have already occurred versus a need to prevent such incidents from occurring in the first place, a majority of the police stations have planned a quiet Christmas for their staff to help lift the spirit and spread some cheer.
SP (North) Bosco George said, “No police personnel can go home. They have to either be at the place they are posted or at their respective police station 24x7 from December 23, 2008 to January 5, 2009”.
In fact, for the first time the Panaji police station has put in an extra effort to make Christmas cribs, while Vasco is continuing with their tradition of setting up cribs, though there is only one Catholic PSI at the station. “Christmas and New Year are special to one and all. It means something different to everybody, and whether it’s familyrelated or not, whether you are Catholic or not, it fills you with a lot of emotions and feelings,” said a police officer.
Majority of police stations supervisors have decided to purchase cakes and sweets to be distributed to the staff on Christmas as they are all going to be “together on duty”. Some police staff have decided to burst firecrackers to welcome the New Year, “if things go on peacefully”.
There are about 4000-odd police personnel and the ratio of police to the state’s population is 1:339. Of these, about 15 to 20 % of the staff comprise Catholics. But they will have to sacrifice their personal celebrations to ensure that we celebrate the festival without any fear or uncertainty.
While some Catholic police officials said, “I would have loved to be at home for Christmas but then extraordinary situations call for extraordinary caution. We don’t want to take any chances”, few others said that they have decided not to celebrate this year as a mark of respect for those policemen who lost their lives in Mumbai terror attacks.
Some policemen added, “The police force is one big family and this season also we will celebrate with our family members”.

December 24, 2008, The Times of India, Goa edition