Improving people-police interface
K.A. CHANDRASEKARAN
THE POLICE personnel need a solid improvement in their emoluments and living conditions. Napoleon expected his army to march on its stomach. The colonial tradition perhaps expected the police to live off the countryside. Both the approaches are patently unfair to the police force and civil society.
The police force should have mobility, mobile communication equipment and computers at police stations and should have incentives to acquire proficiency in computers and relevant technology.
To improve the interface between the police and the citizenry, there could be a mentor type person for every 100 families or so to liaise with the police on an honorary basis. He could preferably be a retired person, well known in the neighbourhood, who can give time for this work.
This mentor or buffer would have a thorough knowledge of the rights and obligations of the police and the people. He can be a conduit of communication between the people and the police; a mechanism for either party to let off steam; a device to enable reason to prevail between the parties and thus to attenuate mob fury on one hand and police overreaction on the other.
In the relations between the people and the police, he will redress the balance in favour of the people, as the people are in general ignorant of their rights and obligations vis-à-vis the police. This could be an informal arrangement and the mentor can appeal to the Commissioner of Police in case of disagreement.
Ombudsman
Every district can have an ombudsman to look into complaints against the police. He can call for papers and give decisions which will not be mandatory. But every case where the administration differs with him will have to be reflected in the annual report of the department and placed on the table of the House. He could be a serving or retired District Judge or even an eminent public personality.
There could be a report card on the perception of the police by the public every year on the lines evolved by the Public Affairs Centre, Bangalore. The performance can be compared over the years
Surprise checks
To reduce corruption, there is perhaps no better way than frequent surprise checks by the superiors, what the management lingo calls Management By Wandering Around (MBWA). Students (NCC and Scouts) can be commandeered on holidays to check traffic documents, pollution certificates, etc., and professional organisations can be authorised to issue licences, fitness certificates, etc., to provide a measure of competition.
There could be a "twinning " arrangement between the State Police Training Institution and a counterpart in a country where the police are said to function well, say Singapore. The faculty of the selected institution can conduct training for our police personnel and train trainers.
Singapore has a special advantage since Tamil is one of the state languages there. Our sub inspectors and constables can be sent there for field training, as seeing is believing. One should not grudge the expenditure as the return in terms of improved efficiency and behaviour would be a hundredfold.
An appeal can also be made to filmmakers not to always portray policemen as fat, lazy, and corrupt as life often imitates art and prophecies can be self-fulfilling.
Printer friendly
page
Send this article to Friends by
E-Mail
Open Page
