praveen kumar on Indian police,policing and the UPSC and poems on love and human nature.

2002-09-13T21:18:00.000-07:00

praveen kumar on Indian police,policing and the UPSC and poems on love and human nature.

An analytical study of the philosophy and field dynamics of the policing in practice with live instances from the field penned by a Police Officer from India. The hypocrisy and the sad state of affairs in the profession in India and the UPSC as its appointing agent are effectively brought out by the author.
ORGANISATIONAL AND ADMINISTRATIVE CHALLENGES
BEFORE THE POLICE

It is India's good fortune that its fabric of law and order withstood the onslaught
of growing complexity of the Indian society lest fragile is its system of policing.
The fact that the police systems in a few neighbouring countries of Asia and Africa
are worse cannot be a solace as the political, social and economical structures
forming the cornerstones of those countries have tout a fait different backgrounds
and value systems from ours. India is a crucible wherein the dynamics and
relevance of democracy in the third world are experimented with. The Indian police
system must necessarily meet the latitant aspirations of the democracy in fulfilling
its desinent objective of maintaining internal order arid security. This dimension
added to the problems of policing in India. The Indian polity confronts its police
with ever greater challenges while affording it an increasingly liimled wherewithal
to do so. The Indian police system dodders while taken on ride by the shocks of the
growing complexity of the Indian society and its relevance to society is luxated
in the seemingly unending luctation for relevance. The tenor of the setback lies in
the failure to foresee and continuously keep the system one step ahead.

The hazard of the Indian-police lies in this immobility of its organisational
structure. The existing police system is utterly devoid of any adjustment mechanism
that keeps it relevant to the zeitgeist. A time-to-time review Ad concomitant
updating of the police organisation become sine qua non the cfactimstances,
particularly while me nascent democracy lounder the policing system of India remis velisque, quite oblivious of the futuristic kiaugh. A systematic study of the policing
in India with an adequate pemoctation to screen the latest researches and findings
in relevant fields of social and political systems, science and technology in
reorienting the police organisation and administration is an essential parameter in
the vital exercise.

A police setup worth its salt should meet the specific needs of the policing. The
police setup must necessarily be raucle in its frame to be capable of absorbing the
shocks to which it would often be exposed. Secondly, motive factors should be
substructed in the body of the organisation as sound motivation alone can make
policing a purposeful activity. This should be reinforced with external motive
factors that can be infused to the organisation e re nata. Thirdly, the system should
be organised so as to generate optimism and confidence expropriis to excudit the
magical entrainement. Another important aspect that should weigh lourd in
evolving an effective police organisation is evolving a mechanism whereby every
police officer or unit is put in charge of a specific job matching his or its competence
and aptitude. An element of levity should be brought to policing so that the work
in hand can be attended to with genuine involvement by each police officer. Another
strategic principle of a healthy police organisation is having absolute faith and
giving full responsibilities to subordinates with a concomitant reward and
punishment system that follow at the heels. Any attempt to disturb the balance of
faith, full responsibility and reward and punishment system is certain to fell the
organisation into desuetude. The extant conception of collective responsibility
through a chain of command has gone passe by its propensity to demotivate the
real workers due to the corrupt ambitions of those at higher levels in the chain of
command. Policing has grown of late to be such an independent field of
specialisation that it is tout de force impossible for a mortal being to be proficient
in even a single aspect of policing. It is rather a folly to ween a police officer as
being able to handle all aspects of policing though at different times. Hence, the
need of specialisation-oriented policing. The present managerial world is
increasingly realising the importance of human resources as organisational inputs.
Unless all-out efforts are made to inhaust to police the creme de la creme of the
country with exceptional attributes of probity, intelligence and commitment and
impart eximious and purposeful training to bring out the best of each, no efforts at
updating the organisation can bring about a sempiternal transformation in the setup.
The fact that policing can be successful only with popular cooperation, focuses the
attention of the police organisation on the needs of building up its image. Although
efforts are already afoot towards building up the image of the police, the depths of
the possibilities are yet to be fully explored and exploited. A scientific approach in
this score will make policing tanto uberior. Also, the scope for scholarly and
intellectual activities in policing will make policing multi-dimensional and add to
its effectiveness. The fremit reception given to intellectual activities in some quarters of policing may not go down too well with the future police planners. The
future police organisation and administration should cater to the need of intellectual
activities.

The present police organisation and administrative system have to be
overhauled in the near future as the ineffectiveness of the extant system becomes
increasingly obvious with the flaws in the edifice starting to gape wider. The areas
wherein restructuring may be desirable and the thrusts sine qua non to stuff the
hiatus valde deflendus to have a featous police setup, quite capable of facing the
challenges of the future are discussed tout court below.

Exclusion of social legislations

The proclivity of weighing the police with reinforcement of all types of
legislations has become a major hazard to effective policing. While the proliferation
of legislations in independent India made it impossible even to keep track of their
numbers, it is senseless to ween the police as being able to enforce them all. The
stupendous task of enforcing these legislations adversely affects the effectiveness
of the police and corrodes its credibility. This is emphatically so with social
legislations which pass out of our legislative houses sans cohibition. These
progressive measures are inherently controversial in nature and their enforcement
by the police weakens its credibility as an agency of serious business and
peremptory order. It is plauditory to conceive of the police as a vehicle of
progressive measures, but in the process, is certain to put both its credibility and
professionalism into jeopardy as the social legislations lack depth and gravity to
enforce them and assiduous enforcement may ricochet as an outcry of harassment
and high-handedness. It is not in the interest of the country to expose its police to
such civil contecks and suffer it thereby.

India can have an independent social policing system under the social welfare
ministry to which police officers with a flair for progressive measures may be
deputed. The social policing system as a professional enforcement agency of the
social welfare ministry can do an effective job in enforcing progressive social
legislations with all their nuances, by fully devolving on it while saving the police
organisation from the embarrassment of handling issues to which it is not equipped
either mentally, professionally or organisationally. This measure will exeme the
police organisation from unwarranted pressures and enhance its legitimacy in
handling serious security and law and order issues.

Specialisations in policing

The growth of police functions as adnated to present life-style of increasing
complexity is enormous of late with policing slinking to the vitals of all streaks of social and nonsocial living. Policing has become a high-tech affair these days with
scopes for further advancements. Each major activity of policing like maintenance
of order, investigation of crimes, collection of intelligence and security-operations
have assumed such an independent status of nonesuch expertise and
professionalism that these fields being inhered is neither desirable nor feasible. Nor
in the circumstances, does shifting a functionary from one field of expertise to the
other help his overall performance. Anfractuosity in any one of these fields of
specialisation for life is becoming a requisite as time goes by.

The futuristic policing of India must have its subordinate police as professionals
in a given field of specialisation, say maintenance of order, crime investigation,
intelligence collection or security operation with synergy manifesting only at higher
levels. So, India may have independent law and order police, detective police,
special police and security police, each separately recruited and trained for
professionalism and expertise in their respective fields. Officers from all these
specialised fields should be eligible to rise to general policing at higher levels on
the basis of a pro rata quota system for promotions.

Parallel crime administration

"The increased preoccupation of the police with law and order and security issues
in view of the growing cataclysmic activities in the country has adversely affected
effective, crime administration of late. Police stations have become registering
stations as far as crime administration is concerned. The time of the local police is
fordone with immediate issues of law and order and V.I.P. security, and in the
process, crime investigation has become a casualty. The process may further
deteriorate as security and law and order problems increase in coming years. Neither
the crime staff at subordinate levels nor the supervisory staff at district and higher
levels, in the melee, have the will or the resources to divert to crime investigation
while the crime rate in the country is assuming dangerous proportions.

Crime investigations should not be allowed to suffer because of disorder and
insecurity in .the country, as otherwise, a vicious circle may develop wherein
disorder and insecurity lead to fall in investigation and flabby investigation in turn,
to patulous disorder and insecurity. This triste development may be effectively
dealt-with by an independent crime setup, parallel to the law and order outfit.

The crime outfit should be responsible for the investigation of criminal cases
and function under an Inspector General of Police who is responsible to the police
chief; with a crime Deputy Inspector General of Police in each range. Each district
may have a crime Superintendent of Police with the necessary number of detective
Deputy Superintendents of Police, detective Inspectors, Sub-Inspectors and
constabulary to assist while only Sub-Inspectors and above are empowered to
investigate cases. The Sub-Inspectors will be attached to various police stations with powers to register criminal cases and investigate only petty cases. The crime
Superintendent of Police refers criminal cases of his district for investigation to
Police Inspectors or Deputy Superintendents of Police, woridng under him, on the
basis of the gravity of the cases and take up exceptionally grave cases for personal
investigation. The crime Deputy Inspectors General of Police may take up
exceptionally sensational cases in his range for personal investigation. The crime
outfit in a district must run parallel to the law and order outfit of the district.

An independent crime outfit in district and state may exquisitely behove to a
futuristic police setup by giving crime investigation a boost and insuring it against
the peracute pangs of organisational maladies of the future.

Control room-centered policing

The compulsions of urban policing are strikingly different from those of rural
policing. Response time is the hallmark of urban policing where a delay of a few
minutes can make a difference between death and life as criminals and terrorists
with the most sophisticated communication, weapon system and hair-raising
organisational accuracy overawe the police, pitted against them in the course of
their criminal operations. The present police station oriented policing is
incompetent to meet the challenges of the urban criminals either in resources or in
organisational ingine. Further, complacency in re own procinct may stifle the very
policing system of India.

Unity, resoursefulness and speed form the spine of urban policing. The control
room-centered policing in urban centres where men and transportation and latest
communication facilities that work round the clock in shifts enables galvanic
operations to tackle law and order problems. All town and cities require control
rooms of appropriate sizes with a control room chief of a befitting rank. A control
room of a metropolitan city having a population of more than fifty lakhs may be
entrusted to a control room chief of the rank of Deputy Inspector General of police;
a city having a population exceeding ten lakhs requires a chief of the rank of
Superintendent of police to its control room; a city of a population exceeding a
lakh may have a control room in charge of a Deputy Superintendent of Police; a
town having a population of more than 20,000 may require an Inspector to head its
control room; and a town with a population of less than twenty thousand may need
a control room under a Sub-Inspector. Each control room may have four
shift-officers of the rank immediately lower in rank; all subordinate staff of the
town or city are kept under the control room's disposal on round the clock shifts.
The control room should be well connected with several channels of telephones,
wireless sets, mobile telephones and other state-of-the-art communication
equipments to strategic points, mobile vans, task forces, hospitals, fire force units,
civil defence units, neighbouring police units and residences of senior police
officers and civil authorities. The control rooms should be equipped with the latest
gadgets and sufficient transportation facilities for the maintenance of law and order.
The law and order unit of the urban area may be headed by an officer of the rank
above the rank of the chief of the control room.

This outfit with unlimited resource at its disposal for launching any type of
operation within a few minutes of communication may suffice to meet the
challenges of maintaining law and order in urban areas in the new age.

Reorganisation of intelligence units

The place of collection and analysis of intelligence and special operations in
policing including security operations, maintenance of law and order and crime
investigation is sui generis as intelligence forms the building blocks of all nuances
of the police operations. The police, operating to collect intelligence, forms the
substructure of the edifice of policing of the country. Indian intelligence system is
yet to stand up to the enormous challenges thrown to it and it can nowhere be
compared with its counterparts in developed and even a few developing countries.
Various intelligence outfits of India are often found functioning at cross purposes.
India should reorganise and strengthen its intelligence outfit if it is to survive the
challenges of the coming age.

The Indian intelligence system should develop unity of purpose and operation
by working under the umbrella of an unified intelligence authority headed by the
union cabinet Secretary with intelligence chiefs of the police and military as
members. The authority should affect a synergy of intelligence operations through
its various wings of internal intelligence, foreign intelligence, counter-intelligence,
military intelligence and security intelligence. Sufficient attention should be given
to infuse entrain in the intelligence system of India and modernise its methods to
raise it to a few degrees closer to the international standards. The interferences of
officialdom should be eradicated from intelligence operations and a sense of
commitment and dedication should be infused by making intelligence operations a
lifelong career.

The state intelligence wing should be headed by an Inspector General of police,
directly responsible to the state police chief. The intelligence wing should be overall
in charge of intelligence operations, pertaining to security, law and order and crime
in the state.

Specially trained security Operators

The ultimate purpose of all police functions is public security. Either it is
intelligence collection or crime investigation or maintenance of law and order - all
roads lead to this single aspiration. Therefore, the security operations forms the crown of policing activities without which all other police operations prove futile
exercises.

The India of the new age will need specially trained battalions of security
operators in every state to take charge of the security of vital installations and
VIPs. Each will work under the supervision of an Inspector General of police,
responsible to the state police chief. Also, each state police unit will have a small
commando force under the Inspector General of police to meet threats during
emergencies like hijacking, VVIP security under difficult circumstances,
complicated operations against terrorists etc. This special group will be brought
into operation only under exceptionally difficult circumstances on the direct orders
from the state police chief. Otherwise, it will be involved in continuous commando
training of the highest order. The commandos will be well-equipped with the
wherewithal of commando operations of the latest order. Only select officers will
be recruited to the group with extra emoluments to make the job really elite. The
commando units of the central government will train the state commando forces.

The need of commando groups in the state police will be increasingly felt in
future as the menace of terrorism and sabotage grows uninhibited with the future
possibility of peracute methods being accepted as legitimate ways of expressing
political dissent.

Improved management of human resources

The human aspect is the fulcrum of policing. Human comportment teethed with
authority to compesce the human mass forms the essence of police activities.
Policing essentially is human interaction, latitant in unending luctation to smite
criminal and anti-social elements. It is the human quality in the force that determines
its effectiveness and vitality. Therefore, human resource policy in a police
organisation needs careful and gritty handling at the highest possible level.

The present Indian environment of ruthless competitions impleached with a
degringolade of values made human resources management a farce in India. The
wherewithal of human resources management like recruitment, promotions,
transfers, rewards, punishments etc, is no more employed for the maximum benefit
of the organisation. Self-interests have undermined quality and character and
organisational interests are subordinated to personal behoofs. Though this
proclivity is prevalent in all fields in India, of late, its adverse effects are kenspeckle
in police organisation as the line-system of the organisation makes the ingenuity of
human resources management, a factor having direct bearing on the quality of the
policing. While policing is becoming a dynamic part of the governance in urban
areas, with the rise of urban pockets, the damage done by egregious management
of human resources in the police cannot be exaggerated. The declension may go
patulous with the passage of time if frack measures to arrest the depravation in human resources management are ignored.

Diligent efforts at the highest level in the organisation to create a force
characterised by integrity, commitment and intelligence may be the foremost need
of a police organisation of the coming age. The prevalency of police administration
over the general administration in the survival of a nation as a democratic and
orderly country may necessitate future changes in recruitment and service condition
rules to attract the very best talents of the country to the police organisation with
extraordinary care to ensure that anything less than the best with clean antecedents
does not step into the organisation.

Once the ingine is inveigled into the fold of the organisation, the ingenerate
need of retaining it in the organisation sans delusions and disappointments and
improving upon its attributes gains added momentum. In the extant system, only
those less than the best join the police organisation; less than satisfactory training
is imparted to them that fails to infuse even elementary professionalism; and the
practical experience in the field emaciates their noble ettles, if any are left alive, as
an improvident fool's paradise and causes them to fall in line with the mediocre.
Futuristic India may not have an alternative to breaking this vicious circle for its
survival and better managing its human resources by designing a training
programme that makes a budding officer a thorough professional in policing,
reinforces his noble ettles and changes the environment of the police organisation
to inspire a subjacent faith in the right value system.

Time-bound promotions

The system of assessment of a subordinate's work for promotion has fallen into
utter desuetude and dangerous misuse by the prevalent corrupt atmosphere. India,
in the interest of its future policing may do well to extricate the prospects of career
developments like promotions from subjective assessments of corrupt influences
by ensuring two periodical promotions in a time scale of twenty-five years. So,
every Police Constable retires minimum as an Assistant Sub-Inspector of Police, a
Sub-Inspector as a Deputy Superintendent of Police and an Indian Police Service
Officer as an Inspector General of Police. The present incidence of most of the
Police Constables retiring as Police Constables may not go well with the concept
of ex aequo society of futuristic India and pose a threat to the health of the police
organisation in the environment of increased awakening of the 21st century. The
officers of the Indian Police Service may be posted on first appointment as
Superintendents of Police to make the service more attractive, though not to districts
directly and the dual recruitments at the rank as in vogue now require to be stopped
to make police recruitment meaningful.

Officers in exceptional cases may have avenues for special promotions in
addition to the two, provided in a time scale of twenty-five years, on the basis of a
written examination and on an overall assessment of their career of twenty-five
years by high-powered committees formed for the purpose. The promotion of
constabulary in exceptional cases to the ranks of PSIs and above should be screened
by the Police Board of the State; the promotion of PSIs as Superintendents of Police
and above should be screened by the All India Police Authority and the promotion
of IPS Officers as Director General of Police and above by a Central Cabinet
Committee headed by the Prime Minister. This arrangement will ensure fearless
and professional policing sans complaissance to corrupt elements, particularly
when the prospects of corrupt practices of repriming professionals of probity and
hoisting flaccid complaisants to prominence are certain to be in excelsis in the new
age.

Removal of constabulary

The constabulary which forms the backbone and the cutting-edge of Indian
policing and wields real authority over the populace, is a lowly-paid, modestly
educated, non-elite mass of uniformed workers. The authority they wield makes
them fearsome while their low status in society sperres them from commanding
empathy, respect and legitimacy. The fearsome authority sans empathy, respect and
legitimacy decidedly proves a deadly substructure for an organisation and people
certainly resent an organisation with this unhealthy attribute. Nor the truculent
authority, invested in officials of an intra-mural enlightenment and responsibility
can ensure its comme il faut exercise. This foible in the extant setup manifests as
increased hazards to glib policing as the complexity of its challenges thickens in
coming years, if no remedial measures are undertaken belive.

The Indian police of the 21st century will require Sub-Inspectors with their
present scale of education and status in society as the primary unit of policing at
the cutting-edge level with no policing powers and responsibilities devolved
beneath this level. The constabulary upto the level of the Assistant Sub-Inspectors
of Police should be limited to the duties of menial assistants without police powers
and responsibilities. This will require a huge army of Sub-Inspectors in the Indian
police while the constabulary stands to be severely spruced in strength.

With the removal of the constabulary from the police hierarchy, the
Sub-Inspectors will besort to the lowest rank in the police setup. Each police station
works under a Police Inspector assisted by a host of Sub-Inspectors, performing all
subordinate functions of the policing including beat patrolling and investigation of
minor cases under this dispensation.

Professional training facilities

The chief cause of policing never being a profession in India is the
ineffectiveness of its training facilities. In spite of adequate infrastructures available
for training police officials of various ranks, these centres largely fail to meet the
quality required to make a recruit a thorough professional. An overhaul of the
extant training facilities in terms of its quality, content and character is inevitable
to keep the Indian police excubant to future challenges. The training facilities
should be made centres of scholarship and research on police subjects with
professionals of national reputation in each subject handling their respective
subjects. The psychology faculty of the centre should endeavour to build character
and infuse right orientation among the recruits. The faculty members of the training
centres should be exceptionally well paid so as to inveigle the best in the field to
join. Army officers must handle outdoor classes. This model helps in instilling the
highest standards and expectations in trainees till they become full-fledged officers
and orient them to become professional police officers, apart from distancing them
from the moderate influences which are herded to handle police training centres in
the present setup. The trainees must be exposed to police officers as guest speakers,
by inviting very senior police officers of the highest integrity and job standards to
deliver talks on specific topics. Separate professional training courses should be
available in the training centres for law and order police, crime police, intelligence
police and security police with scope for advanced learning with an eye to the latest
developments in each respective field. Latest training methods should be adopted
with management, computers and advanced psychology inter alia as the common
subjects of study for all the courses. The training centres should give the impression
of being temples of advanced studies apart from being so.

Professionalism in policing

Policing requires commitment and dedication on the part of its operators. The
principles of faith and responsibility must run invisus through the vitals of the
policing, should it be purposeful and successful. The extant bureaucratic malady
that infested the Indian police setup cohibits healthy policing practices. The police
organisation should be reoriented to develop a professional approach to its
operations with full faith and responsibility as the hallmark of the delegation of
power. The present emphasis on procedures should be shifted to commitment and
result-orientation within the ambit of the rules.

An analytical study of policing, its trends and modem techniques helps to bring
professionalism in policing. Due encouragement for the study of theoretical aspects
of policing and its application in the field through in-service training 'will be a
welcome step in this direction. If police managers succeed in inspiring in police
officers an interest in theoretical aspects of the policing and its latest techniques, it
would be a kenspeckle leap in abraiding Indian police to the challenges in the future.

Gentlemanly image

Though efforts have been en train to ameliorate the image of the Indian police
for a long time, nothing substantial could be achieved for amateurish handling of
the affair. The present Indian police managers have their image development tools
limited to issuing occasional press statements when image development has become
a highly advanced field of specialisation with unending scope for further
advancements. In view of the considerable significance of the image for successful
police operations, the wherewithal of image-building in police organisation is
required to be updated with latest techniques with the help of professionals in the
field.

Change of uniform

A change in the existing police uniform is an issue to be deeply probed into to
improve the police image. The present khaki uniform of police inspires resentment
as it is psychologically associated with repression and violence. A change of police
uniform to full white or pleasant colours may prove to be a measure for the better
in removing the negative image of the police. The overall strategy in selecting a
new police uniform should be to infuse a sense of oneness and quality among the
ranks of police and inspiring a psychological disposition of friendliness,
confidence, respect and healthy fear in the public with a compulsion to see the police
as their own people, but invested with the responsibility of a noble task.

Good living standards

The police organisation functions effectively only when a reasonably good
living standard is made affordable to all ranks of officers, so that they can deal with
antisocial elements from a level of strength and confidence sans the lure of easy
booty, thrown en revanche to a let-off. A low living standard retards the police
image and esteem in society that are the essentials of successful policing. It is more
so in future while more and more of the so-called elite jump into the fray of criminal
activities in an increasingly complicated society.

It may be necessary to make police officers financially bien in comparison to
their counterparts in other services with 30% of their pay paid as risk allowance
and 20% as hazard allowance to compensate job factors. This helps to attract the
best to the fold of the police organisation, apart from protecting them from financial
distractions. A feeling of condign compensation is certain to boost the commitment
and efficiency of the police.

Modern facilities and management tools

The police organisation has seen mushroom growth sans application of requisite
management principles. The major lapse lies in failure to define organisational
objectives and formulate specific set of actions thereon. For example, extraneous
objectives like creating employment opportunities often inspire creation of
additional posts irrespective of the organisational needs, which results in corrosion
of job contents and thereby morale of the force. Work often is not allocated on the
basis of scientific assessment of the character and aptitude. The latest equipments
purchased a grands frais under modernisation schemes without creating the
infrastructure for its operation or analysing its relative merits to the organisation,
resulted in its being dumped a few days of its operation while even basic necessities
of policing are yet to be met in a fsw other quarters. These anomalies prove criant
luxuries to a police organisation, sure to be faced with enormous challenges in the
third millennium.

The police organisation of India do well to be featous, well-organised and
formulate actions and operations in line with latest management principles and
practices. K may either constitute an efficient cell of management experts to advice
or hire a management consultation firm for guidance. At any rate, the police
organisation of the third millennium should be a far smaller unit than now, manned
by highly committed and capable officers who are paid and looked after well by
the government.

The present policing system in India has too much of paper work with hundreds
of registers maintained in each station or office with tens of forms filled up in each
stage of policing. A detailed analytical study of paper works in policing may help
to considerably reduce paper works and thereby save precious official man-hours
for use in actual police operations. Computerisation of an paper works is also a
possibility not far away.

The modernisation of the police force with the latest communication, transport,
weaponry and office equipment system and me simultaneous creation of the
necessary infrastructure for their operation in advance alone besort the police force
to the challenges of elite criminals, armed with latest equipments. India of the third
millennium will require its police force to be equipped with helicopters as an aide
in policing in emergencies. A genuine and effective effort to achieve modernisation
ends would be sine qua non for the future policing. A face-lift to police stations and
offices with the latest office equipment and general facilities will go a long way in
creating a psychological atmosphere for effective policing.

Creation of criminal law board

India requires the constitution of a statutory Criminal Law Board as an advisory body to liaise between the police setup and the union law ministry regarding crininal
laws to facilitate glib policing. The board, as a permanent body, may have
seniormost officers of the central government from home and law ministries, police
and prosecution departments, distinguished humanists and senior advocates of the
Superme Court as members with the union home minister as its chairman. It must
undertake the study of the need of changes in criminal laws from rime to rime. The
board may meet every quarter and discuss extant criminal laws and their
shortcomings in the light of representations received from officers in the field from
the police and prosecution departments and make proposals for requisite changes
in criminal laws e re nata.

Widened responsibilities in crime administration

A few glaring anomalies and some erroneous provisions in the extant criminal
laws of India contributed to the easy escapade of criminals from the clutches of law
in many cases and harassment of innocent persons by the police in some other cases.
The loopholes in the criminal laws have to be plugged imprimis if crime
administration has to be effective in India and command a semblance of respect
and confidence of the public.

The police or judicial officer under whose custody a person is kept under
detention should be made responsible by name for the latter's timely release with
a provision that if detention exceeds the period provided by law, it will make the
concerned officer liable for proceedings for unlawful detention without the
privilege of exemptions for actions performed in official colour, available under
extant laws. Also, all cases of violence and physical outrages committed in police
custody should be made punishable with exemplary penalties by special
legislations. Such outre measures may bring an end to shocking criminal acts
committed eo nomine policing in some quarters and save the Indian police from the
embarrassment of severe public resentment.

Current bail provisions of the Indian criminal law constitute a source of acute
embarrassment to police officers with criminals, arrested after weeks or months of
stupendous efforts, let off by the judiciary on bail. only to facilitate jumping the
bail. All discretions about bail with police and judiciary should be taken away with
only a select few offences of enormous gravity being made nonbailable wherein
neither police nor judiciary can release criminals on bail. This eliminates the
possibility of favours to some criminals and bring mechanical accuracy and
objectivity to bail provisions. This measure may prove to be a trailblazer in
ensconcing criminal laws from misuse during the difficult period ahead.

Police commissioners in cities

Every city in India with a population of more than a lakh must have an
independent policing unit under a Police Commissioner of a rank befitting the
population of the city; a city with a population upto ten lakhs may have one of the
rank of Superintendent of police; a city with a population upto 50 lakhs may have
a Deputy Inspector General of Police as the chief and a city with a population of
50 lakhs or more may have an Inspector General of Police as its Police
Commissioner. The setup of Police Commissionerate gives a sense of unity and
purposefulness to the task of policing, apart from being most suitable form of setup
for urban policing with magisterial powers being invested with the police to enable
prompt action. This setup with empight responsibilities instils commitment and
dedication in policing.

Creation of all India police authority

All maladies of the present policing emanate from the politicians who are only
concerned with winning the next election. Until the police organisation is extricated
from the vile prise of the mediocre politicians, it cannot hope to rise above the
mediocre level of its el patron either in proficiency or in character, as such
mediocrity is wont to permeate downwards in a democratic setup. In the
circumstances, the police organisation with its sensitive responsibilities towards the
maintenance of order and security of the country, cannot afford to submit to political
vagaries.

Though a proposal to extricate a precious machinery like the police from the
clutches of the politicians is likely to be met with enormous resistance, it is an
important measure to be undertaken at all costs in the overall interests of the country.
The task may be achieved by creation of an All India Police Authority,
responsible only to the President of India at the national level with regional Police
Boards in states as independent bodies, managing police organisations at the centre
and states. The All India Police Authority must be headed by a Supreme Court
Judge with union home secretary and central cabinet secretary as members and the
seniormos^ police officer of the country as the member-secretary. The regional
Police Bodrd must have a High Court Judge at the helm with home secretary and
state chief secretary as members and the state police chief as its member-secretary.
The arrangement is likely to bring an end to undue interference in police affairs,
thus enabling the police to function in an independent atmosphere. The Indian
police may hope to turn out eximious work in the new age if these measures are
implemented.

Policing as a phenomenon of maintaining order and security in society cannot
afford to be oblivious of the flux in the modem lifestyles. As an integral part of civil living, policing must prepare itself to amate the increasing complexities of modem
life by modifying its organisational and administrative setups to the demands, these
vicissitudes create. The changes warranted in policing may either be deciduous or
peremptory depending on the nature of the transition in society. It is left to police
planners to analyse the nature of the flux in the society and locate the areas where
decession from the past practices has become sine qua non for policing. This should
be an ongoing process if policing is to retain its relevance as the guardian of social
discipline. The futuristic challenges of policing would be pro rata to the twists of
the future living. The prospects of Indian population reaching the mark of a billion
and the concomitant luctation of two billion needy hands to grab a share in the
country's limited resources of food, shelter, water, clothing, electricity, schooling,
employment etc. naturally make life a cut-throat concours and a ruthless adventure
devoid of scruple, human values and a concern for fellow men. It would be a fight
for survival with less competent and skeigh gentlemen going belive hors de combat.
The kenspeckle pejoration had already set in from the early sixties. Though the
Indian policing system managed somehow to deal with the vicissitudes (ill now,
the geometric acceleration of the flux of the coming years may prove to be too much
to the extant police setup. Therefore, it is high time now that we prepare our police
organisation and administration for the future challenges.

BACK

ORGANISATIONAL CHALLENGES