The Hindu : New police chief has priorities right

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Jan 31, 2004

New Delhi

New Delhi

New police chief has priorities right

IN HIS first informal media interaction, Delhi's Police Commissioner-designate, Krishan Kant Paul, said that instilling a sense of security among citizens was one of the objectives before the Delhi police. While a detailed strategy is likely to be spelt out this Saturday after he takes over as the new police chief, a closer look at his statement would suggest that several issues, like reforms and curbing corruption, will have to be dealt with before people regain confidence in the police.

Not that the Delhi police have fared badly. Terrorists have been kept at bay for more than two years. All the major festivals and the Delhi Assembly elections last year have passed off peacefully. Crimes like robbery aboard moving buses have been curbed and many sensational cases solved in the past year-and-a-half.

But then, why should the common man feel unsafe in the Capital? The reason is that the people are not finding the situation as good as the Delhi police would like them to believe. Socio-economic factors, which lead to a rise in crime, like increasing economic disparity, onslaught of consumerism and criminals from neighbouring states are well entrenched in the Capital's life. And these are factors beyond the control of the police.

But what they can do is to hear the victim out and act accordingly. The problem, however, will not be solved only by training duty officers at police stations to speak a language which makes the victim comfortable. The officer should be in a position to deal with complaints in a manner which helps the victim's cause. Otherwise, a patient hearing would be rendered meaningless.

It is here that reforms become necessary. Separating law and order duty from investigation, for instance, is a case in point.

A policeman with less burden and clear demarcation of duty would definitely be in a much better position to hear out the complaint and also take action commensurate to the problem.

Moreover, such reforms require reorganisation, restructuring and training of the available manpower. And not loads of extra funds, the lack of which is often cited as the reason for the slow pace of reforms.

Another step, which can help the police in gaining the confidence of the people, is approaching the community. But as experience has shown, community policing is a much-abused term and has failed to go beyond fanfare and lip service.

Take for instance, the Community Liaison Group scheme, which was launched in South Delhi in 2002. Prior to the launch, a large team of police officers had gone to Singapore to learn about the scheme.

A lot of groundwork was done to ensure that people lent support to the scheme. But soon after a star-studded launch, many of those officers were transferred and the scheme was rendered useless.

The point here is simple. As things stand, the Capital's citizens are not particularly known for their active participation in community affairs. Against such a backdrop, failure of such initiatives will make them all the more cynical.

It is, therefore, imperative that before initiating such projects the powers-that-be ensure that the scheme would be allowed a full run.

In the final analysis, however, a lot will depend on how transparent and corruption- free the force can become. Nobody can be expected to wave a magic wand in this regard as the malady runs very deep.

The first task would be to de-institutionalise corruption and ensure transparency to the maximum extent possible. All this is going to take time. And that is one thing which seems to be in favour of the new incumbent.

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