“Improving the State of Policing in India”

Background
It is generally recognized that India is facing a grave crisis of governance today. The Police Act of 1861 remains the central piece of legislation that governs all aspects of policing in India. The years after independence witnessed the enactment of new legislation in several states of the country. Unfortunately, these new Acts were patterned almost exactly on the model of the 1861 Act, resulting in no significant improvement in the performance or behaviour of the police forces. In fact, some of these state Acts tightened political control even further over the police force, without introducing any safeguards to prevent misuse of the police for partisan purposes, or creating effective mechanisms to ensure police accountability.
The subject of ‘State of Policing in India’ was covered in the 175,000 strong citizens’ community for governance ‘Transform India with Modi’. With a large number of citizens participating in the Discussion, the following reflects how the Citizens of India feel about the current State of Policing in India.
Based on the inputs from the citizens, it looks like India will need to restore the police to its original purpose - to not only uphold the rule of law, but to also serve a society where everyone feels safe and protected.

Key Issues Identified:
1. Police forces lack sensitivity
2. Rough and arrogant attitude of police in general
3. There is no transparency in the working of police
4. There seems to be a nexus between police, politicians and the criminals
5. Traffic policemen take bribes for letting go of ‘Challans’
6. Police doesn’t file the FIR easily
7. Misuse of authority by police personnel
8. Police department is slow in inducting technology in maintenance of records, crime control etc.
9. Police is still doing paper work on files and registers in this digital age
10. Bribes taken for Passport and other verification
11. Policemen don’t know all rules, policies and the law themselves leading to poor implementation
12. Lower ranked policemen are not educated enough
13. Most of the constables/head constables are not physically fit
14. Ratio of policemen to public is low
15. The police is usually dominated by politicians

Root Causes Identified:
1. FIR is not filed to reduce accountability
2. A lot of authority is vested in the police officers
3. The department still follows the old ways of working
4. Staff not trained enough to use technology
5. No reviews of physical fitness required
6. Department fears change; still comfortable with doing paperwork instead of using computers
7. Vigilance over traffic police is weak
8. Many traffic policemen are lazy; they just stand in the shade and are indifferent to traffic violations taking place right in front of them
9. The working conditions of police department, especially lower in the ranks is not very good
10. There is no career path of a police man in lower ranks which leads to zero motivation to work hard and rise up like private sector employees
11. A lot of police men recruited either have political connection or pay huge bribes. Hence they try to recover their investment by taking bribes
12. Lack of adequate training to police force
13. Police is still using a lot of outdated weapons
14. Their job is tough and they are not paid very well
15. There is no effective grievances redressal mechanism in a time bound and independent manner
16. Politicians influence the working of the police department

Solutions Identified:
1. Police should be brought under the Central Government for autonomy and to eliminate State/Political interference and influence
2. Filing FIR should be made very easy
3. All the police records should be computerized
4. A routine physical fitness test should be conducted for all field staff
5. Physical fitness should be made compulsory in order to stay in the job
6. Salaries, living conditions and work hours should be made at par with private sector
7. Corruption should be completely eradicated from the police department by introduction of transparent systems and reporting
8. Any officer caught taking bribes should be immediately suspended and harsh action should be taken
9. Police should be trained to provide good customer service to the people
10. Vigilance on traffic police should be increased
11. CCTV cameras should be installed in different areas
12. All police stations should be put under electronic surveillance from the inside
13. Staff should be trained to use modern equipment – computers as well as latest weapons
14. Police stations should be modernized
15. Work conditions/culture of the police department should be improved
16. The senior management should motivate the lower rank officials by discussing/working on their career paths
17. The police recruitment process should be made more transparent
18. Honest police man should be rewarded handsomely & media should highlight their achievements
19. The system should be made transparent - every complaint/FIR should have a Unique ID which could be used to track the progress online
20. Police should connect with citizens at a hyper local level to understand issues and work together with citizen communities
21. Just like private organizations, an image building campaign should be done by the police department as well

State of Policing in India –A few Citizen quotes and comments:
1. Facelift of police department can be changed by changing the age old uniform. This way public image of the police will change – B S Srinivasa

2. Firstly we should reduce the number of laws, also in the name of moral policing the police wastes more time. I completely agree that police should be kept out of political influence, but the major concern is that laws are so irrelevant and out dated that I am sure crossing a road on a zebra line can also be a crime. Please formulate uniform and universal laws for the country which have to be incorporated in the states. Have a more systematic way of appreciating police, money is not the solution to policing but fewer laws, that are enacted well is the solution. Computerization is key solution to avoid any political or outside influence. FIR is a standing joke in the police stations as they have not received the stationary since ages. So a plain paper on which they shall stamp is the solution. Please get the basics right in the law books so that the police can be motivated to perform policing – Aniket Jha

3. What about installing CCTV cameras in police station. This will ensure that the common man is treated with respect and will also curb bribing and other undesired activities in police station – Mahesh Bendre

4. Recent turn of events in Burdwan confirms what I wrote earlier in this forum. State should only handle traffic police. Serious issues like security, terrorism, scam etc. should be handled by central agencies – Sukanta Bhattacharyya

5. There should be fear among Citizens for being caught by Police then only Policing can become effective. Police should be paid well and rewarded, motivated to expect them to keep the law and order well, as well as on catching the law breakers. When they are involved in petty corruption in collecting ‘hafta’ and bribes to leave law breaker, offenders for petty amount like Rs. 10-20, who is afraid of them and how the law can be maintained. For road Traffic also drivers should be respecting traffic rules for the fear of hefty fines on getting caught. This is crux of the efficient policing. Hope Acche Din will ensure it in coming days. Welfare of police personnel, well equipped with tools and gadgets to overpower the offenders, suitable vehicles to chase the criminals are some of the things missing currently with the existing Police Personnel – Vijay Bedakihale

6. It is during training that devotion to nation has to be imbibed among policemen. They have to be mentally tough and physically robust to always remain honest to the people they serve – Subhash Vaid

7. Police department should set an example for the society by putting the laws in place without any influence. The police department is the origin for the implementation of all type of laws but sorry to say that all laws break in the police station itself and common people like me become a victim. Victimisation of the common people has to be stopped by the police department as it is very important and vital for the putting the police department as a protector of law – Hemant Sinha

8. Police and judicial system both work in tandem and both need to be reformed as a package. The STATE should TRUST its citizens and the system should rely more on AFFIDAVITS being submitted by the citizens. However filling of a wrong or False AFFIDAVIT should be treated as a serious offence / crime and should attract very heavy penalty – Navin Soi

9. Online FIR Filing should be available, also tracking(Status) of the FIR should be available online or can get from police station easily ,like what action has need done against the particular FIR – Ashok Kuanar

10. Police department should be free of political interference. Rather than the department being run by a top cop, it should be accountable to an autonomous body. Training of police needs a overhauling, apart from and weapons training, they need training on situation management, people and mob behaviour, there attitude. Police department always complain of not having sophisticated weapons, but 95% crime can be prevented by better policing rather than weapons and cases can be solved if they are properly trained on crime scene and evidence management – Dilip Singh Negi

11. A standard hierarchical recruitment should be followed like in UK. Every officer should start from level zero and promotions should be performance based. It will also motivate the officials to work efficiently to improve their image and post. It will also motivate individuals to take up policing as a serious, respectful profession – Ashwath Bhavsar

12. The police are the biggest organized centre for corruption & theft. They know everything but will still harass you knowing that ur unaware of the law in India & will misuse it – Shrenik Giriya

13. Of course, that salaries paid to the police staff is very low but corruption is evident in the department. There may be honest officers but few. The department is not working to the expectations of the public. Again, they are controlled by the politicians. Unless you have influence one cannot get work done – Chudamani Kurudi

14. The promotions should be from within the cadre and time bound promotions should be given up to a certain level then it should be purely on merit. Even the highest officer should have come from ranks and no direct recruitment. This is followed in Briton. political interference and influence should be eradicated, at the same time recalcitrance should be punished severely – Dayananda Kamath

15. Also, many more police personnel need to be recruited, since the ratio of policemen to public in India, is quite low, compared to Western countries, and this does create problems – Satyajit Sheth