The Hindu : New Delhi News : A case for stronger inter-state police ties

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Saturday, Aug 23, 2008
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A case for stronger inter-state police ties

Police officers feel slow pace of modernisation in some states hampers smooth coordination, finds out Devesh K. Pandey

A rapidly changing crime scenario where criminals commit crime and frequently shift base from one state to the other to evade detection has necessitated effective coordination among the police forces of the various states. Also, a spurt in terror activities is a sound enough reason to strengthen inter-state ties.

The recent arrest of Anil Sharma, an alleged tender mafia from Jharkhand who had a reward of Rs.5 lakh on his head, is a good example of what efficient cooperation between two states can achieve. Acting on in-puts by the Jharkhand police, their Delhi counterparts tracked down the criminal and nailed him. In another recent case, the Delhi police had arrested a fugitive from Jharkhand.

Such successful operations should encourage enforcement agencies of different states to come together in the pursuit of their sole objective of fighting crime.

However, many police officers cite past instances where they did not get the desired level of cooperation from their counterparts in other states while following leads on criminals. “In one particular case in which we arrested a big-time criminal from a neighbouring state who had been on the run for several years, some officers of that state were not happy,” recounted a police officer, adding that at times credit-seeking-approach poses problems in striking good coordination at different levels.

Three years ago, the Delhi Lieutenant-Governor had convened a meeting of senior government functionaries and police officers of neighbouring states to address various issues pertaining to inter-state coordination. He stressed the need to devise a functional mechanism to surmount the obstacles caused by the geographical borders and advocated sharing of intelligence, resources and technology, besides institutionalising the system of inter-state coordination for crime prevention.

Over the years the situation has improved a lot. Serving as a nodal agency for sharing of intelligence and crime data, the Delhi police have been providing training to their counterparts from other states to augment their functioning and policing skills. They are being taught how to collate, categorise and analyse the data, apart from being trained to use the services of zonal integrated police network, an online data-bank on incidents of crime and criminals of nearby states. “An Uttarakhand police team is scheduled to undergo a computer training programme here from August 25 to 29,” said a police officer.

Police officers feel there are still some unresolved issues as far as smooth inter-state coordination is concerned, particularly the slow pace of modernisation in some states. “The Centre allocates sufficient funds for modernisation programmes. But it has been seen that the state administration has on several occasions failed to spend the entire sum within the stipulated time-period. And in the name of modernisation, money is being spent on things like purchasing vehicles,” said another police officer, adding that a strong will was required to ensure that the funds were used judiciously and for the right purpose.

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