Ooty: Over 200 cops will be donning the new role of tourists cops here, to help, guide and care for tourists during summer tourist season in the hills to script a new chapter in tourism and traffic management in the Nilgiris.
The cops, including women police constables, who have been selected for the job, from next weekend, will wear a special red colour jacket with imprint “tourist police’ on it. The selected cops began their training session on Wednesday, on handling the tourists in a more hospitable way to guide them in this tourist destination and also for safety and security in the hills.
Functionaries of the various service clubs and the soft skill trainers have given inputs to cops on how to be soft, silent and smiling to handle the tourist affairs at the training session held at the Boy’s club here on Wednesday.
Speaking on the occasion, Murali Rambha, SP of Nilgiris, said that it is the soft skills and the polite attitude that would win hearts. Policemen should imbibe these traits in them to deal with the tourists to become friendly persons, instead of trying to expose their harshness.
The tourist police should be polite in their language and take time to provide information necessary for the tourists such as guiding them on the ATM centres, banks, parking lots, hospitals, bus stands, railway stations, the route for various tourist spots, the speed limits in the ghat roads and also the “Do’s and Dont’s” in the hills. They should also be ready to hear complaints of theft or loss of property. “Cops should ensure that the tourist-police concept in the Nilgiris became emulative for other tourist centres to follow and make a mark in the annals of police history in the nation,” he added.
