NEED FOR POLICE REFORMS

INDEX

1. What has gone wrong with our Police?

2. BRIEF HISTORY OF POLICE REFORMS

3. WHAT IS THE PEOPLES PROBLEMS WITH THE POLICE SERVICE?

4. WHAT IS THE POLICES PROBLEMS WITH THE SYSTEM?

5. SO WHAT ARE THE SOLUTIONS?

6. Advice to the Indian Police Service

7. Model Police Act

What has gone wrong with our Police?

* Police in India, is governed by the colonial Police Act of 1861 enacted by the British.

* This act was meant for subjects and not for the free citizens of a democracy.

* A global survey* showed that at best, the Police are inactive; at worst they "actively harass, oppress and brutalize.

* The relation between the police and the public has reached a point where the citizens rather avoid reporting a crime to the police.
(*"Police Practices: Obstruction to Poor People's Access to Justice", Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative Publication)
Transparency International India had done a survey on the Police Force Service in 2008; I have consolidated some of it for General Knowledge Awareness

* Among the BPL households interacting with Police during the year, 73 percent opined that Police personnel are corrupt.

* Around half of the BPL households, who paid bribe, paid for ensuring that their complaint could be registered.


* Even for the basic reason of lodging a complaint, majority of the BPL households had to make repeated visits to police station.


* As regards grievance redressal measures, 9 out of 10 households believed that the situation in Police service had deteriorated even further than the last year.

* People often go to police station to know the status of the case registered with the Police. However, the BPL households are more often given a vague response like inquiry chal raha hai (enquiry is going on) and no specific information comes forth.


BRIEF HISTORY OF POLICE REFORMS The National Police Commission was appointed by the government in 1977, to look up to the problem of Police Reforms. The NPC submitted 8 detailed reports between 1979 and 1981 containing comprehensive recommendations covering the entire gamut of police working.
But the governments response to the core recommendations of the National Police Commission was unfortunately negative. When the reports were forwarded to the state governments in 1983, they were asked merely to take appropriate follow up action, RESULT=#EPICFAIL.

There has been almost 30 years of debate on policing and reform in India, with commission after commission submitting reports and recommendations to governments. Each report has gone unimplemented.

In 1996, two former Director Generals of Police asked the Supreme Court to direct central and state governments to address the most glaring gaps and bad practice in the functioning of the police. In b/w the 10 year long case, many committees were constituted by the govt , each gave its report, nothing substantial happen =#EPICFAIL.

In 2006, case was decided & the Supreme Court issued a series of directions


* a Security Commission at the state level;

* transparent procedure for the appointment of police chief and desirability of giving him a fixed tenure;

* separation of investigation work from law and order duties; and

* A New Police Act to reflect the democratic aspirations of the people.

The judgment had said, This watchdog body (Security Commission) shall be headed by the chief minister or home minister as chairman and have the DGP of the state as its ex-officio secretary. The other members of the commission shall be chosen in such a manner that it is able to function independent of government control.

Broadly classified, the directions were two-pronged:
a) To divest the Act of all its colonial vestiges and transform its focus from rule to governance.
b) To grant immunity to the police from the Executive and politicians.

The latter direction was greeted with surprisingly unanimous hostility by all State governments.
Cutting across party-lines, the shrill refrain was that the Supreme Court was bent upon arrogating all powers to itself and thus destroying the Constitutional scheme of separation of powers. They contended that it would destroy democracy and lead to juristocracy.

AFTER 2006The Police Act Drafting Committee (PADC) commonly known as the Soli Sorabjee Committee (constituted in 2005) submitted its Model Police Act.
Many states passed new police acts, somewhat diluting the SC directives and not taking into account Model Police Act =EYEWASH#EPICFAIL.

Six years after, in 2013, SC took suo motu cognizance of caning of women by police in Bihar and Punjab.


CHAL PHUT YAHAN SE!!!!

The court asked about the follow up from the states on those 2006 directions.
The bench also said lower rung of police was made to stand for hours on VIP duty without provision for food or water. "This forces them to pressurize vendors to provide free food and water. The seniors do not take care of them. The pent up frustration just comes out and incidents like YOU SEE ABOVE happen.

The problem related to the Indian Police Service can be broadly categorized under two heads

* The problems which WE THE PEOPLE have with Indian Police or the Peoples Problems,

* The problems which Indian Police has with the System or the Polices Problems.
[NOTEI think both of these are inter-related]

WHAT IS THE PEOPLES PROBLEMS WITH THE POLICE SERVICE?
PROBLEM#1
RAMPANT CORRUPTIONthese are some of the corrupt practices, Indian police has indulged in:

* Corruption of authority: police officers receiving free drinks, meals, and other gratuities like taking hafta from street vendors.

* Opportunistic theft from arrestees and crime victims or their corpses.

* Shakedowns: accepting bribes for not pursuing a criminal violation.

* Protection of illegal activity: being "on the take", accepting payment from the operators of illegal establishments such as brothels, casinos, satte ki gaddiwallas or drug dealers to protect them from law enforcement and keep them in operation.

* "Fixing": undermining criminal prosecutions by withholding evidence or failing to appear at judicial hearings, for bribery or as a personal favor.

* Direct criminal activities of law enforcement officers themselves.


SIZE OF STATESALARMINGVERY HIGHHIGHMODERATE

Large StatesAssam, Rajasthan, UPBihar, Chhattisgarh, ,Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh,Tamil Nadu,Gujarat, J&K, Orissa, West Bengal, Maharashtra, KarnatakaAndhra Pradesh, Delhi, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Kerala, Punjab, Uttarakhand

Small StatesGoa, SikkimArunachal Pradesh, Nagaland Chandigarh, Meghalaya Manipur, Mizoram, Pondicherry, Tripura

Table: Level of Corruption Relative Position of States

PROBLEM#2

ABUSE OF HUMAN RIGHTS, WOMEN RIGHTS, CHILD RIGHTS..


* ABUSE OF HUMAN RIGHTSPolice throughout India has long been responsible for a broad array of human rights violations, often committed with impunity.

The gross violation of human rights by the police can be categorized as


* police failure to investigate crimes;

* arrest on false charges and illegal detention;

* Torture and ill-treatment; and extrajudicial killings.
The traditionally marginalized groups like Minorities (in the case of communal riots), Women (in the case of sexual offences) and BPL card holders in general are biggest victims of police apathy.

Though stemming from the discriminatory biases of police officers the vulnerability is also the product of an abusive police culture in which an individuals ability to pay a bribe, trade on social status, or call on political connections determine whether they will be assisted or abused.

Police sometimes use torture and other mistreatment to elicit confessions to the charges they fabricate

Story of Seth (skip if you are in hurry)

Varshiya Mohan Seth, a 66-year-old owner of a jewelry shop in Varanasi was caught by the police and presented to journalists as a captured criminal.
At 3 p.m. on July 16, 2008, police came to Seths house. A sub-inspector (SI), accompanied by five constables in civilian dress, accused him of possessing stolen gold and jewelry.
Police then threw Seth into a non-police vehicle and took him to a deserted railway line.
Scared, Seth took police to his shop and let them confiscate all of his merchandise. Seth said, Instead of taking me to the police station, I was taken to a chowki where they distributed the jewelry among the SI and constables.
When Seth protested, constables beat him and the sub-inspector broke two of his fingers.
Later that day, Seth was taken the police station and put in lockup. At night, police showed him a television, two mobile phones, and some jewelry and told him to sign a blank piece of paper. Seth said when he refused to sign; the SI started verbally abusing and beating him.
Police then took Seth to a room where journalists were waiting:
All police and the SI were standing and the media people were taking photos.
I was not allowed to speak, the police were saying theyd solved a good case of theft, theyd recovered these things

Stories like these are not new, and you must have read these kinds of stories in the local newspaper, they are an apt example of police working.

Extrajudicial Killings by PoliceThe Indian police can be broadly categorized as committing two types of unlawful killings. In the first, suspects die during custodial torture or by execution and police deny all responsibility, claiming instead that there were other causes for the deaths.
In the second, known as fake encounter killings, the police acknowledge the killings but falsely claim they acted in self-defense or to prevent victims from fleeing arrest.
These constitute most grave violations of human rights.
Examples are hundred, if not thousand and though MRUNAL Bhais home government is widely publicized for doing fake encounters, the problem is of all INDIA Level.


Hello sahib: BTW snooping & Stalking are violations of Human Rights as well!!!
Encounters killings have enjoyed vast public support since 1980s, when the term was first used for what the media depicted as vigilante-style heroism in courageously hunting and gunning down criminals.
The Indian publics historic tolerance of police killings as a crime-control technique has diminished in the last decade. Encounter specialists have been suspended on charges of corruption and police across India face prosecution for fabricating shoot-outs. But the practice persists, and has undoubtedly spread beyond major cities and specialist police units into smaller cities and surrounding villages.


* ABUSE OF WOMENs RIGHTSDiscriminatory attitudes and lack of sensitization to the crimes involving sexual or domestic violence leave victims without critical police aid or the redress to which they are entitled.
A total of 2,44,270 incidents of crime against women were reported in the country during the year 2012 as compared to 2,28,650 in the year 2011 recording an increase of 6.4% during the year 2012.
Verma Committee formed after Delhi Gang-Rape called for Police Reforms but the government ignored Justice Verma's recommendations on police reform.
Now Criminal Amendment Law having been passed, lot of its prospects would depend upon, how the states respond to the call for Police Reforms. (This being a clichd issue not elaborating much)



* ABUSE OF CHILD RIGHTSUnder Indias Juvenile Justice Act (Care and Protection of Children), children arrested by the police must be placed immediately under the charge of a special juvenile justice police officer or other designated police officer. Police sometimes fail to place children immediately with officers designated for work with juveniles and hold them for longer than 24 hours before presenting them to a magistrate or juvenile justice board.

In many places, police periodically round up local teenagers, whom they previously have arrested and sometimes torture them, usually over the course of a week, seeking to get them to confess to new crimes or implicate others.

In July 2013, Aaj Tak broke the story exposing a secret prison run by Delhi policemen to confine juveniles, where from keeping the accused juveniles illegally in the building to torturing them inside the place, cops at the lower level did it all inside the building, so later on these juveniles can be produced as the criminals when the real culprits couldnt be caught.

PROBLEM#3

USEFULNESS=NIL!!!
Yep, this may sound harsh but those of you have seen Hindi films know that Police usually reaches after everything is done!!!
Neither the maintenance of Law & Order nor the investigating crimes and much less the convictions of the Accused, Indian Police lacks the Courage, Spine, Attitude, Will and the Equipment + Man force, TO DO ITS DUTIES EFFICIENTLY.
In several cases, witnesses and victims turns hostile (need for protection to witness by police or need for witness protection programme*), in others the victim could no longer be traced, while in several others the police statements did not match what the victim or witnesses said in court.
Look at some Delhi-centric data (2012)

* There has been only one conviction out of over 600 cases of rape reported (754 accused were arrested) to Delhi Police in 2012 even as crime against women has been on the rise.

* Of these total accused, only one was convicted while 403 were facing trials, investigations were pending against 348 and two others were discharged.

While much of this can be attributed to the Political HAND in its working and stagnant Legal structure, the complacency of the police cannot be ignored. Low conviction rates in criminal cases are primarily a result of the low quality of police investigation because police men knows that they are in sarkaari naukri they dont do their efficient best.

Recently occurred Muzzaffarnagar Riots, showed what could be a result of a situation in which police force works from under the heels of political executive.
The point is if the same system can produce iron-willed officers like Kiran Bedi, Y.P. Singh etc., why cant there be 671 like them???

{*= It is not directly related to Police Reforms.
** For one in each of the district in India}

WHAT IS THE POLICEs PROBLEMS WITH THE SYSTEM?
PROBLEM#1
TOOTHLESS AGAINST NAXALS AND TERRORISTSthe state and central police forces are bearing the brunt of insurgents and terrorist onslaught. Maoists have spread their influence over vast swathes of territory. Organized crime is spreading its tentacles. It is essential therefore that the police have the resources, the capability and the motivation to deal with these challenges.
They are saddled with a colonial structure and are completely under the thumb of the executive.
All these problems have no doubt political, social or economic dimensions. However, the law and order dimension is common to all the problems - be it terrorism, insurgency in Jammu and Kashmir, separatist movements in the north-east or the Maoist insurrection.
Remember how Maharashtra police was caught off-guard during 26/11 attack.

PROBLEM#2

THEY ARE VICTIMS AS WELLLast year, when SI Sachin Suryavanshi of Mumbai police did his duty of pulling up errant MLAs, he was assaulted in the Vidhan Sabha itself and subjected to every possible form of victimization. Ex- Police Commissioner of Mumbai Arup Patnaik, was shunted out by a cabal of politicos and the government for his bold step in diffusing a potential riot. The list of upright officers like these is not exhaustive but whenever officers show their spine, they are degraded in every possible formwhich results in shattering of morale of the police and resumption of status quo in the system.

PROBLEM#3
UNREASONABLE TRANSFERSThe Supreme Court has observed that frequent and arbitrary transfers, besides "demoralizing the police force" and "politicizing the personnel" constitute a practice that is "alien to the envisaged constitutional machinery".
As a result, political control of policing has eroded internal chains of command, obstructed police functioning, and ensured that responsibility for wrongdoing is hard to pin on any one body or individual.
The powers to transfer, appoint, and promote police officers are being exploited as weapons and rewards for compliance or not, and have come to represent something entirely different from the original intent of basic administration and healthy career growth.

PROBLEM#4

INEFFICIENT DEPLOYMENT & TRAINING OF PERSONNEL


1. The Indian police suffer from a shortage of personnel.
According to the recently available information, there is a national average of one civil police officer for every 1,037 residents, far below Asias regional average of one police officer for 558 people and the global average of one for every 333 people. More than 13 percent of civil police positions are vacant nationwide, but the actual deficit of staff is greater because allocations are based on outdated population figures and suppressed crime registration.

An assistant sub-inspector in Karnataka said that staff shortages are worse in rural areas

Effectively we get five or six persons each shift. Yet, each police station will cover 50 or 60 villages. It is difficult for us to even reach the [crime] scene on time. (Ok now we know why they are late)

The personnel shortage means heavy workloads, long working hours, often without overtime being paid, and officers on call 24 X 7. Police say that the resulting stress and frustrations contribute to low morale and pressures to find investigative short-cuts, particularly since officers designated for crime prevention and crime investigation work are often diverted to immediate-day-to-day duties such as patrolling demonstrations and religious processions.
The personnel shortage is compounded by misuse of police time. For instance, they spent whole days escorting VIPs visiting their cities or villages or helping VIPs maintaining their status symbol.


1. Although they make up 85 percent of the Indian police force, constables and head constables have limited qualifications, training and authority. They should be transformed from mere automatons, recruited to perform duties of a mechanical character, to the skilled workers with the training necessary to undertake crime investigation and prevention work. There are four police training schools in Jammu and Kashmir, but training there is virtually nil. Bihar has no training school at all. As a result, a policeman gets into the force and is thrown into the deep end. He learns on the job how things are done. He learns how not to file first information reports (FIRs) and how to write FIRs so that he doesn't have to exert himself too much.

At the same time, constables are sometimes the first responders to crime scenes, as a first responders, they should provide emergency assistance to the injured and secure the crime scene by limiting access of bystanders, identifying witnesses, and protecting the evidencethe latter actions are crucial to the success of the entire investigation. But constables are not trained to perform such tasks.

Inadequate police + lack of training + remaining manpower doing VIP work=you know what!!


PROBLEM#5

POOR LIVING CONDITIONS


1. Low-ranking police often live in barracks or family quarters at or near the police station. They may receive a housing allowance for private accommodation which, in urban areas, is as little as a fourth of the cost of actual housing.

Housing shortages lead some police to live in barracks hours away from the villages in which their families reside and many police men feel frustrated when they are denied leave to see families living far from their police stations.
Some police barracks have deteriorating walls with water leaking in the Monsoon and some are exposed to the open air. The barracks are typically shared by 12 to 16 constables and head constables and are cramped with trunks, bicycles and equipmentthey had fewer beds than assigned personnel.

An Uttar Pradesh constable told Human Rights Watch, There is one hand pump. The toilets are broken. Authorities demand that we are on duty 24 hours, but dont take [care] even of the most basic facilities.



1. Many police living in barracks are getting little sleep. This further impacts their performance.

A constable in Uttar Pradesh said: On average we get about four or five hours of sleep.
Sometimes, we are so tired, we do doze off while on duty. And if the authorities or the media catch us, it means immediate suspension or a cut in salary. (So, next time you see a hawaldar dozing at railway station, you know the reason)

AND FURTHER THIS QUOTE SUMS ALL UP-

We are being exploited. I have to work for 24 hours but I get the wage of a chaprasi [messenger]. I dont get any leave. My meals are unhealthy and below caloric value. There is no fixed time for meals, sometimes we just get [meals] at nine, sometimes at 12. Its just like Im a prisoner. We are suffocating here. I feel like its still the British Empire. Theres no medical facilities, no toilet. The funds allocated by the government to constables are taken away by the superiors. You dont understand the trauma of being here....I took three days medical leave and had 25 days salary deducted.

Further, they dont have their own vehicle + low salary, and have to rely on public transport (so, next time you see a hawaldar not paying for that bus-ticket, you know the reason.)

JAI BAJRANG BALI!!! :IS THIS THE RESULT OF FRUSTATION?


SO WHAT ARE THE SOLUTIONS?

SOLUTION#1

Change in Complain Registration Method

The Indian station-based model has encouraged police neglect and abuse of crime victims. Victims of violence, particularly violence that is gender-based go to police station fear of being physically harmed at the police station or while traveling to it, especially at night.
Those who do attempt to report crime are often rebuffed: repeatedly latkao by the police for you know what. Poor Victims are especially vulnerable to Police intimidation.
In contrast, the call center model ensures that a record of a complaint is made because calls are automatically recorded. Victims who phone call centers can avoid the police discouragement and harassment that occurs at stations, since trained and monitored call center personnel perform initial intake= More jobs for worthless graduates in BPOs + More efficient use of hawaldars in policing activities.

SOLUTION#2

Use of New Initiatives and Technologies

Intranet-based system should be developed for all state police departments, enabling on-line sharing of crime & criminal databases, aiding communication and monitoring activities.
Promoting usage of FM and community radio for sensitizing the people.
Helpline should be permanently instituted with easy access to vulnerable sections of local people. Not only telephones but also manning at police stations is important.
Frequent training of police personnel through local agencies. A local university or institute should specifically design and conduct short-term courses on how to interact with poor and women, and on issues to do with matrimony, alcoholism, sexual abuse etc. This would also enable the police force to deal with local problems in a more effective manner.

SOLUTION#3

Transparency and Grievance Redressal

Transparency in service delivery by sharing of information to urban as well as rural BPL households should be encouraged.
Timely action needs to be initiated and complaints should be registered promptly.
Police, on its own, at regular interval should keep the concerned person/family informed with the status of the complaint registered (REALLY, hahaha).
Independent Police Complaints Authorities in all States should be set up, to look into public complaints against police officers and staff.
There is a need to separate investigative and law & order functions of the police, and train them accordingly.
Complaint books at police stations should be more seriously used. Police Week should be organized more seriously and more interactively with the BPL households and jhholachhap NGOs.

SOLUTION#4

Changing Perception about the Police Service

Police should be more helpful and the public should be able to approach them with confidence. Sensitization of police personnel for friendly behavior towards people needs to be brought in.
Police should frequently interact with community members to create confidence and better image of the Police force. There are many good examples to follow from like that of Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Goa etc.,
I personally liked the Beat Officers System that has been followed in TrichyThe city was divided into 57 beat zones and 4 constables were made in charge of each beat and were designated as Beat Officers. This instilled a sense of pride in them and empowered them to make independent decisions, made them more responsible and responsive to public needs. Policemen were also encouraged to attend to civic problems to gain goodwill and support of the people. Through all this, the police succeeded in creating an atmosphere that was citizen friendly and was conducive for the public to share information this further resulted in Aam aadmi volunteering for community policingLOW CRIME RATE.

MORAL OF THE STORY Community policing in India is like the hydro electric potential of Arunachal Pradesh, i.e. not being properly utilized. It can be used as substitution for increasing manpower of police as the process of recruitment takes years in states like UP, where subsequent govts use Nepotism in recruitment, then aggrieved person go to High Court, case crawls for 3-4 years, finally verdict comes and then in a year govt changesCYCLE CONTINUES but yeh sudhrenge nahin!!!

An honest and friendly behaviour towards the common people needs to be inculcated, irrespective of the persons socio-economic status.
Trust amongst the public should be built by ensuring prompt and impartial service.
Police should review its relations with news media and should formulate a clear short term and long-term strategy to improve its media relations.

SOLUTION#5

Formulation of Citizens Charters

Citizens Charter for the Police should be finalized after having a detailed discussion
with the concerned Service Providers, Service Seekers and the genuine NGOs representing the
concerned Citizens and services. It has been divided into the following sub-Charters for the -
1) Office of the DGP/IGP/DIG of Com-missioner of Police/Jt.CP/Addl.CP
2) Office of the SSP/SP or DCP/ACP
3) Office of the Area SHO/Inspector
4) Traffic Police
5) Special Branch

SOLUTION#6

Thana & District Level Committees

To promote interaction between the Police and the public, Thana and District Level Committees should be constituted in each District and Police Station, respectively. The Thana Level Committees should be represented by the Area MLAs, whereas District Level Committees should be represented by the MPs. Monthly meetings should be held regularly with the representatives of public.


SOLUTION#7

Campus Complaint Box

The complaint boxes should be fixed in universities, college and other open market institutions
These boxes are to be opened by the concerned SHOs and complaints so received, to be registered in Daily Diary of the Police Station for taking necessary action, under intimation to complainant.

Advice to the Indian Police Service (Imp. for those who will appear for interview)


* As the senior-most officers of the Indian police, send strong, consistent, and unambiguous signals to the public and subordinate police that arbitrary arrest and detention, torture and ill-treatment, and extrajudicial killings are illegal and impermissible police tactics.

* Initiate and lead a campaign to professionalize the Indian police as a whole by, for example, introducing stringent recruitment standards for lower-ranking police, technical training, and increased development of specialized units (as per your personal capacity like writing articles in the newspapers).

* Take the lead in developing strategies that put the Indian police force in step with changes in policing elsewhere in the world, with, for example, a focus on bringing services to the community and replacing the colonial model of station-based policing. Engage in, and urge the government to adopt, long-term planning to integrate computer technology in police work.

* Embrace crime prevention and community partnerships as critical to effective police work. Take the lead in envisioning structural changes, such as lengthening posting periods for station house officers and assistant superintendent of police, to improve police knowledge of the community, facilitating better community cooperation and more efficient crime investigation.

MODEL POLICE ACT Remember Soli Sorabjee committee, it came up with the Model Police Act. The Act provides for social responsibilities of the police and emphasizes that the police will be governed by the principles of impartiality and human rights norms, with special attention to protection of weaker sections including minorities. The other salient features of Model Act include:


* Functional AutonomyWhile recognizing that the police is an agency of the State and therefore accountable to the elected political executive, the role of Superintendence of the State Government over the police has been outlined but the Model Police Act creates the following mechanisms and processes which will help the police perform its functions more efficiently as also enhance its credibility in the eyes of the public.

Creation of a State Police Board This body, under the chairmanship of the State Home Minister and comprising the Leader of Opposition in the State Assembly, the Chief Secretary, the Home Secretary and the Director General of Police besides a few independent non-government members, shall lay down the policy guidelines for efficient policing and identify performance indicators to evaluate the functioning of the police service.

Merit-based selection and appointment of the Director General of PoliceTo ensure a leader who can function with professional efficiency and a temporal perspective, without fear or favor, the Model Act mandates selection of the Director General of Police from among three senior-most officers of the state police, recognizing that the Head of the Police must enjoy the confidence of the political executive, the Act provides for the State Government to appoint any of the three such officers as the Director General of Police.

Security of tenureknowing that frequent transfers of officers seriously impede professional efficiency in police functioning, the model Act mandates a minimum tenure of two years for the Director General of Police and other key functionaries such as the District Superintendent of Police and the Station House Officer. Indeed, the security of tenure does not preclude the removal of an officer for misconduct or inefficiency; it merely ensures that removal is consequent upon specified grounds laid down in law.

Establishment Committeethis is a departmental body comprising the Head of
the Police and other senior officers, being created at the state as well as district levels, to consider transfers and postings of police officers at different levels on the basis of collective wisdom, experience and honesty, and to look into complaints of police officers against any illegal orders.

Encouraging professionalismto ensure an efficient, responsive and professional police service, the Model Act introduces the concept of preparing plans that lay down the policing objectives to be achieved in a given period, and provides mechanisms to streamline criminal investigation and the training processes for police officers.

Earmarking dedicated staff for crime investigation to streamline criminal investigations, the Act mandates earmarking of staff in each police station specifically for investigating heinous and other specified offences, who shall be trained in scientific and other methods of investigation.

Civil Police OfficerKeeping in view the fact that the civil police as against the separate armed wing of the police needs better-educated personnel to exercise discretionary powers in dealing with people and investigating cases, the Act stipulates that the rank of constabulary be done away within the Civil Police.
Now the primary rank in the civil police would be Civil Police Officer, Grade II. Those recruited to this rank shall be trained for three years as stipendiary cadets, and only upon passing prescribed bachelors degree examination in Police Studies would they be appointed as Civil Police Officers.


* Accountability Paramount realizing that what matters most to the people is accountability of the police; the act prioritizes police accountability, both for their performance and their conduct.

Performance Evaluation The Act provides detailed mechanism comprising the
State Police Board, assisted by an Inspectorate of Performance Evaluation, to evaluate the police service at the state, district and police station levels. The police shall be evaluated against identified performance indicators (including operational efficiency, public and victim satisfaction, accountability, optimum utilisation of resources, and observance of human rights standards), the targets let out in the Annual Plan and the resources available with the police.

Accountability Commission and District AuthoritiesThe Act creates independent civilian oversight agencies chaired by retired judges at the state and district level to inquire into public complaints against the police for serious misconduct and to generally monitor internal departmental inquiries in other cases of misconduct.

Offences by the policeThe Act introduces criminal penalties for the common
defaults committed by the police including non-registration of FIRs, unlawful arrest, detention, search, or seizure to bring into sharp focus for the police personnel that some of their practices are not only illegal, but also criminal offences under the law of the land.

Improved service conditionsThe Act also aims to provide better service conditions to the police personnel including rationalizing their working hours, one day off in each week, or compensatory benefits in lieu. It creates a Police Welfare Bureau to take care, inter alia, of health care, housing, and legal facilities for police personnel as well as financial security for the next of kin of those dying in service. It further mandates the government to provide insurance cover to all officers, and special allowances to officers posted in special wings commensurate with the risk involved.

Role in protecting Internal Security in light of new threats the Act also deals with police preparedness to manage threats to internal security from activities of terrorists, militants, insurgents and organized crime groups. The police are not granted any special powers in the Act to deal with these threats; rather the Act provides for systematic preparation and meticulous compliance of Internal Security and Standard Operation Procedures and
Schemes to handle the threats as well as creation of Special Security Zones with in a State that facilitate different police structure and command, control and response system, and cooperation between different agencies of the state(s).

by Shrey Khanna


SOURCE

1. For all of police confessions and more http://www.hrw.org/sites/default/files/reports/india0809web.pdf

2. Why States Do Not Want Police Reform - Analysis DNA http://www.dnaindia.com/analysis/standpoint-why-states-do-not-want-police-reform-1879268

3. Reforms-in-Indian-Police-System by Nishank Varshney http://www.scribd.com/doc/137026937/Reforms-in-Indian-Police-System

4. Brief note on Model Police Act 2006 http://bprd.nic.in/writereaddata/linkimages/7784067421-Brief%20note%20on%20Model%20Police%20Act%202006.pdf

5. SC takes first step towards implementing police reforms http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2013-04-12/india/38490935_1_security-commission-state-police-police-act


1. India Corruption Study 2008 by Transparency International India http://www.transparencyindia.org/resource/survey_study/India%20Corruptino%20Study%202008.pdf

2. Interview of G.K.Pillai http://www.rediff.com/news/interview/number-of-policemen-per-100000-people-in-india-is-130/20100215.htm