In a major push for community-led policing, the Ri-Bhoi Police are mobilising Village Defence Parties (VDPs) across the district to act as the eyes and ears of law enforcement. The initiative aims to build a strong local network of 10,000 to 12,000 boys and girls who will help prevent crimes such as child kidnapping and murder, which have been reported in parts of the state in the past. The move is seen as a proactive mechanism to enhance public vigilance and ensure faster reporting of suspicious activities in villages.
Senior Superintendent of Police Vivekanand Singh Rathore said the goal is to establish VDPs in all 650–700 villages of Ri-Bhoi, with each group comprising 15 to 20 members. The state government, under Chief Minister Conrad K. Sangma, the Home Minister, Chief Secretary, and Director General of Police, is considering providing equipment and monetary support to the VDPs to strengthen their role and morale. Each member will oversee five to ten households, ensuring early detection of problems such as harassment, stalking, or child abuse, while improving police visibility in rural areas.
“We want Village Defence Parties to be part of our enforcement drives also because, see, we have around 650 villages in this district, 650–700 roughly, and every VDP has around 15 to 20 members. So that brings the count to around 10,000 to 12,000 persons. So we are trying very hard to constitute VDPs in each and every village of our district so that we have around 10,000 to 12,000 boys and girls who will actually become our eyes and ears. We have seen in the past that a lot of children have gone missing in various parts of the state, some on their own, some were kidnapped also and a few murder cases were also reported. So, if you have these VDP friends in every village, we take it as a very strong mechanism to prevent crimes in future,” said Rathore.
He added, “The state government under the leadership of our Chief Minister and Home Minister, even the Chief Secretary and the DGP ma’am, they are very positive about this idea and serious consideration is going on to provide certain equipment to our VDP friends, as well as some monetary allowance to boost their morale. So it’s a work in progress, and we believe that with VDPs in our assistance we will be in a much better place to prevent crimes—especially road traffic accidents and also during investigation of cases.”
Explaining the structure, Rathore said, “The whole idea is to assign a group of five to ten households to each VDP member so that he can keep watch on those households and if there is any problem—anyone troubling a child, maybe stalking or harassing him or her in school, college, or in the village—these small things which generally go unreported, that information also comes to us. So that we can improve the visibility of the police force in those villages through our regular patrolling and all. It’s a consistent drive. The primary objective is to stop road traffic accidents, and the data is very encouraging. People have been very supportive of this drive and in the last two weeks, we have hardly seen any accidents happening on the roads, which was not the case in the last few months.”
He further added, “We have been doing this traffic safety drive for the last almost two to three weeks now. And today, the checking is being done with our VDP friends here.”
The continuous efforts of the Ri-Bhoi Police in conducting surprise checks of vehicles plying along National Highway-6—particularly to curb drunk driving and other traffic violations—have started yielding visible results. Public cooperation has increased, and while some offenders continue to be fined, the rapid spread of information about police presence has significantly deterred reckless driving, leading to a marked decline in accidents compared to previous months.
On the night of October 16, under the leadership of Ri-Bhoi Superintendent of Police V.S. Rathore and Additional SP Orville Massar, along with the Nongpoh Traffic Police team, another round of vehicle checking was conducted at Quinine area. The drive saw active participation of Village Defence Party members from Quinine village, who assisted the police in inspecting vehicles—showcasing the growing spirit of community partnership in law enforcement.
During the operation, several violators were fined for offences such as drunk driving, use of high-beam LED lights that disturb oncoming traffic, and illegal parking or movement from non-designated areas. The total amount of fines collected during these drives reportedly ranged between ₹2 lakh and ₹65,000 in a single night.
