India, US police to further cooperation

Indian police Wednesday sought more cooperation with their U.S. peers in a bid to make the two countries' cities safe in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks and the 2008 Mumbai massacre which hit New York and India's financial capital respectively. "An effective mega city policing system must serve as an effective deterrent against terrorists and their masters, who launch targeted attacks on the nerve centers of a country... our objective must be to make our cities safe, and therefore our countries safe by reducing our vulnerability to such challenges," Indian Home Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde said. The Home Minister was addressing a two-day conference of the police chiefs of India and the United States in New Delhi. The meeting -- the first-ever cooperation between cops of the two countries -- is part of the India-US Homeland Security Dialogue. While the Indian side is being led by Shinde and Home Secretary Anil Goswami, Assistant Secretary for Policy, US Department of Homeland Security, David Heymann, is heading the American delegation of police chiefs.