
Change is always and everywhere resisted, no matter it brings new ideas, new technologies, new concepts, new approaches and new commitments. Some innovations are readily accepted, others make their way slowly and gradually. However, some initiatives are very well-received, and certainly leave profound impact on the society, the organizations involved and the community at large. In Pakistan, recently the Police Act, 1861 was repealed by a new police law, called the Police Order, 2002. Despite this major change, the concomitant Police Rules of 1934 (three volumes) remained unchanged. Chapter XXII of the Police Rules 1934, deals with the Police Station and the criminal record therein maintained manually by the Police-Station Clerk and other senior officers. This record is extremely comprehensive and consists of 25 major registers with its constituent parts, all 50 in number. These 50 registers in total cover each and every thing in a police station area jurisdiction regarding crimes, criminal process, arrest, investigation, prosecution, conviction and criminal intelligence, etc. However, despite its comprehensiveness and pervasiveness, this record was lacking in data/record system on crimes against children and women. The lack of proper statistics often make problems for Pakistan at national and international forums, including the UN Committees. Since May, 2008, the NWFP Police launched a well-thought programme of police sensitization on issues of children rights, child abuse and children in conflict with law. A number of initiatives were taken, and some new proformas were designed. After a year of various training workshops for the police officials with the cooperation of and collaboration with all stakeholders, national NGOs, (PPA, SPARC, Aurat Foundation, etc), international organizations (UNICEF, UNIFEM, Save the Children, Sweden) and with the patronage of the Inspector General of Police, NWFP, new registers for crimes against and abuse of children, and crimes and violence against women were printed by Save the Children, Sweden, Regional Directorate of Human Rights and UNIFEM, and distributed to all 218 Police Stations in the North-West Frontier Province (NWFP). The NWFP Police Chief issued separate Standing Orders for each new register. The process got completed with the launching ceremony of the new data collection system on April 24th, 2009. This will now enable the collection of valid, verifiable and comprehensive statistics on crimes against children and violence against women. This system will cover nearly all the juvenile justice information indicators (both quantitative and policy indicators) as envisioned by the UN. The NWFP Police have set an example for the rest of the provincial police in the other three provinces of Pakistan and the Capital Police of Islamabad. This process was made possible due to the personal supervision and academic input by the President of Pakistan Society of Criminology, Fasihuddin, who is also the Director Research and Development, NWFP Police and the Chairman of the Police Child Protection Committee, NWFP Police. The study of Pakistan Police in this case will be of good academic interest to the scholars of comparative research and comparative criminology and policing.