Police Reforms in India

POLICE:

The worst this state has to offer its citizen. This kind of a police organisation was started by the British to terrorise Indians into submission. This structure of the police has not been changed since then. Our state is best exemplified by the noted Hindi writer Sh. Phaniswar Nath Renu in one of his books where the villagers of a remote village get to know 6 months after Aug 1947 that India is now independent. The main reason being that the biggest visible sign of the government i.e. the police did not change. The “Daroga” remained as regressive as he was before with the only change being that he saluted the Indian flag rather than the British. For the villagers it really made no difference. The structure where the “gora” sahib remained at the district level above all the day to day hassles and the village/sub district level remained with the “Burra” sahib. The I.A.S / I.PS once touted as the saviours and stabilizers of this nation have reduced to touts and pimps of the Indian politicians. The present structure need to be changed and that too fast.

How to improve and what to do?

Before we write or announce anything about improving the police force, first lesson should be remembered: NEVER GIVE TARGETS TO A POLICE FORCE. The force should be judged on their working and not on the crime/law & Order targets.

To prove this point, what happens to police personnel who handle rape victims counselling, child abuse counselling, senior citizen patrol, youth development, community interaction – how we can give targets to them. They are the real back bone of any police system but they never catch a crook or do anything in active law & order duty. They will be always left behind when the rewards of targets achievements are being distributed. Even in corporate circles, rewards are always a dual edge sword, they can hurt the company more than they can support. We know what rewards do to people; their judgements get totally based on them and them alone. The concepts of team, buddy pairing, etc die because one is so hung up on rewards. This topic needs many more trained and brainy minds to create a solution than just a simple scheme devised by politicians and their bureaucratic government servants.

Remove the duties of checking illegal construction, illegal shops / teh bazari, solving marital disputes, etc from the preview of police jobs. There are enough civic and other agencies handling such jobs. All licensing powers should be removed from the police and be given to a licensing board setup in coordination with the local police, municipal bodies and other civic agencies. Stop the practise of calling regular police for civic jobs like removing encroachments etc and hand over the same either civic bodies or depute reservists to help the civic bodies for such works. Each government department having any thing to do with enforcement of rules should have their own enforcement wings and only in case of grave or break down of law and order should the job be taken over by the local police.

Some examples of changes could be:

Railways – No GRP as the concept of involving the local police of the state in helping protect the railways and paying 50% of their expenses has failed miserably as when ever any thing goes wrong no one from the GRP takes the blame. Most people say about the GRP, that it is a force only to fleece ordinary rail travellers and nothing more. Whatever little safety is there is either provided by RPF or by GOD and nobody else. GRP and everybody else come very late in the order. Make RPF totally responsible for crimes concerning railways and book crimes committed as FEDERAL CRIMES and not state crimes. Railways is not like highways, there are material and people that are transported in big numbers on this system at one go. One big difference is the fact that there are high value assets of the railways that are permanently in place which is not the case in highways.

MCD/DDA or any Municipal Authorities – Removing or checking illegal construction, illegal shops / teh bazari, solving marital dispute, etc should be removed from the preview of police jobs. There are enough civic and other agencies handling such jobs. Stop the practise of calling regular police for civic jobs like removing encroachments etc and hand over the same either to civic bodies or depute reservists to help the civic bodies for such works. Each government department having any thing to do with enforcement of rules should have their own enforcement wings and only in case of grave threat or actual break down of law and order should the job be taken over by the local police. All licensing powers should be removed from the police and be given to a licensing board setup in coordination with the local police, municipal bodies and other civic agencies.

Airports – Specific Body like CSF should be handling all aspects (internal - terminal or external - parameter) of the airport security. Local police is neither trained nor equipped to handle the same. Airports being highly sensitive place having concepts like international area, custom bonded areas, security hold areas which require highly specialised job trainings to handle the same. A local policeman handling all this with his local police thana jobs looks like a work of a super human. We should leave the poor “police constable” from all this.

VIP security – The most critical issue which is faced by the police is the handling of VIP security. This facet of police job requires a much specialised and highly trained unit to handle the same. This needs to be divided into 2 sections – Security provided by the central government and Security provided by the state government. For both the central and the state governments should have exclusive force to handle such a dedicated assignment. For the central level protectees, we have discussed the same with the paragraph of CSF, something on similar lines needs to be setup by the state governments. As the security of the protectees is handled in virtually every possible environment like urban centres, villages, jungles, etc, it is imperative that this agency gets trained by the best people in business. It also needs constant updating on the newer threats on the business by refresher courses. One should compare this to the current scenario where a general duty constable holding a 1940’s carbine or stengun is made to protect a key politician or a key witness, etc. It has been seen in majority of cases that the gangsters have rarely been afraid of these security guards. Most of the time, the hit men have been able to shoot dead the assigned target with the police men guarding them either running away from the crime scene or pretending dead. It is better we start early as we cannot kill a specialised anti terror agency like NSG to protect every sundry person. The scenario is such that Army which is the core of this agency with its SAG (Special Action Group) sends only its second best officers whom the army does not see going very high in the army’s internal setup. The work of a SAG type unit is highly specialised. This not to be confused with the Special Forces already present in the Army. Special Forces are primarily meant for the counter insurgency and war operations and SAG/NSG are meant for the regular anti terror/hijack, etc operations. Roughly translated NSG is the civil side of a coin where SF is the military side. The Army needs to upgrade the Special Forces separately but not at the expense of the SAG/NSG. SAG/NSG is the army’s response to daily terror threat to the civil population at non insurgency infested areas.

Other specific departments like Bus Depots security, postal security, metro security, security of defence & nuclear establishments, parliament security, etc should be handled exclusively by specific agencies and not the local police. Base security for private events, rallies, etc should also be entrusted to security stewards who are trained by the police in their jobs but work at the events under the supervision of the police staff. This can act as a force multiplier for the local police. Care must be taken that units like either the reservist or the PCR division of the police supervise such events without any involvement of the local police.

Some of it has already been segregated from local police with burden of providing security to defence establishment handled being by Defence security corps, CSF handles Nuclear areas, etc. This need to be completed fast as the threats from disrupted elements is becoming more ruthless and sophisticated each passing day.
For the system to have any visible and real change the following should be done with immediate effect:

State Internal Affairs Commission (SIAC): This is the Apex body which should govern the Internal Affairs of the State. This is based on the concept of collective leadership. Collective leadership world over has been preferred to a single point system. Even in judicial cases the concepts of jury or a Bench support this argument. The composition of this body has been done to ensure that no one section of the society (e.g. politician or Bureaucracy or lawyers etc) takes control of this body.

Five members of the commission should include:

1. Home Minister (State) – He/she sits here as the representative of the people. His/her being there is necessary as the politicians would never accept any police reforms till they do not seems to be having the leash of their pet attack “dog”.

2. D.G.P – He/she sits here as the representative of the police.

3. State Attorney General - He/she sits here as the custodian of Law.

4. Leader of Opposition - He/she also sits here as the representative of the people.

5. State Human Rights Commission Chairman - He/she sits here as the upholder of our rights as enshrined by the founding fathers of this great nation.

6. State Home Secretary - He/she sits here as the representative of the bureaucracy.

Governed by Five Members commission:

Mainly duty should be of policy formulation, checking the adherence of the county (district) chiefs to the law of the land, Protection of Civil Liberties, Transfers, promotions and postings of Sub district chiefs and above rank officers, etc. This Commission should have no role in the day to day functioning of the police. They should be like TRAI or IRDA - a regulator working for the betterment of the police force as well as the society. They should advise government on the issues of updating law, force requirements, etc.

Extra care should be taken so that this body doesn’t become bureaucrat or politician heavy as that would kill the very basis of having a fair and public oriented police setup.

An officer of the rank of JT. DGP should function as Secretary SIAC coordination.

Split the police force into two main division

1. Law & Order/Allied

2. Investigation.

Law & Order/Allied

Further divide the Law & Order into the following division:

1. Community Policing: This is the public face of the force and all care must be taken that the best men and women are taken in this division. The officers should all be trained to integrate into a community for effective policing rather than be like a sore popping out of it. Firstly these officers should be recruited on the basis of zones within a state and not at state level. One can argue this on the basis of psychological studies that most human beings have an affinity for either their place where they reside or the country they belong to. The feeling for something like a state rarely comes. How can a person who has no affinity for the place protect the same? These studies have been confirmed and have been the basis of all police recruitment in USA/CANADA and also in most of the western world.

In the Indian context one can look at the following example, how can a person who resides in a place like say Bijnor be willing to go that extra length to protect Delhi. For that policeman his being in Delhi is because of his need for a Job (which he could not find in Bijnor) and treats himself like a temporary migrant. For him, his work finishes the moment he moves out of his office and start the minute he moves in the office. His motivation to change things in Bijnor would be more than to do the same for Delhi. Why can’t the state utilise these feelings productively and change the society for the better? Why can’t such a man be posted in Bijnor rather than Delhi? All our policy makers need to accept these results. These days most Indian cities are cosmopolitan in nature that to think that they would get dominated by one sect or community is thinking too far. The policemen/women feeling for the society can be gauged by a psychological test something that the Armed forces have been doing for years for recruiting their offices. These psychological tests have been a great hit in the armed forces and have stood the test of time. Such test are being used in most western countries where joining the armed forces is not mandatory e.g. Britain.

2. Transport (Highways, Railways, Ports, Rivers, County / State airports etc).

This is where the main terror aspect is visible in day to day lives of the citizen. Never should a group be so strong that they have a feeling of acting anytime, anywhere and never should the citizens have to be at the mercy of these people. This has the potential of ruining the economy of the state or its county. Entire stretches of productive land/Roads can be turned waste by this sort of terror. An example of this problem is the choking of our highways in the day time and being virtually empty in the night. This loss in the total productive utilisation of the road happens due to the fact that a small group of people maybe 4 to 5 can dominate a stretch of highway and terrorise people not to travel by night. If we monetise the loss of the highway not being utilised in the night, we will realise how much the nation loses by such acts. The recruitment for this force can work on divisional lines as the resources required to manage such jobs is greater than community policing. Also the area of operations would be far greater than the ordinary police.

3. Special Operations / Intelligence:

Intelligence: This is the most neglected part of our current force. This is where our nation has no idea of what we mean by dossiers of potential or real terrorist/criminal. We can never understand the concept that the regular policeman being part of the community can gain access to more information about the people living in that community than an IB or a RAW office from some distant place. Dossiers can be kept of potential suspects by local policemen in consultation within the intelligence unit. This can be kept handy in circumstances where it becomes necessary to verify the antecedents of unknown terrorist who do not acknowledge their barbaric acts. As a Local police presence hardly arouses suspicion, they can offer the best inputs on intelligence gathering within their counties.

Special Ops: Split this division from the Intelligence as special operations need not wait for the state intelligence division to give them inputs. The main reason for opening such a division is that there are certain jobs which the Intelligence agencies cannot do directly and need to go through the regular police but same cannot be handled at levels of the community police stations. Jobs like actually nabbing terrorist/filing charges/pursuing cases against them etc have to be handled by such special operations group. Another aspect of their job can be witness protection programme. This has been an important link that we in India have never taken seriously. Most cases end up with no or negligible convictions as victims and witnesses are generally terrorised not only by high and mighty but small/petty criminals also. It is with the help of these petty criminals that most terror/spy networks thrive. We must remember that unravelling terror networks sometimes do not require major resources but small logical techniques to counter such nefarious designs.

4. Reservist / Administration:

Reservist: This division help only the law & order and VIP division of the County/State. Their strength should be higher in places like Delhi (due to large number of VIPs) and Jharkhand (due to the Naxalite problem) and lower in peaceful states like Goa or Himachal. As the nature of job of these reservists is specific, they can be trained on a continuous basis to excel in them. As a lower criterion for recruitment of these personnel can be used to enlist them, they would need to be trained on a continuous basis. This can be done properly as the personnel are detailed to do specific jobs and not the current “GENERAL DUTY” concept that is prevalent in India.

Administration: This is the back end for the entire police force and needs to function well. One must recall how the defence forces felt the need for a robust administrative setup and other back end functions for the ordinary jawan. They realised that for a solider to perform to the best of his abilities, he needed to be assured that all their administrative needs were being handled professionally. For tackling all accounts related issues, they established CDA (comptroller of Defence Accounts) branches for the three services. All these CDA were computerised and networked through intranet/internet. All personnel can access all their salary and other accounts just on a click of a button. This has had a big effect on the morale on all their personnel. In the defence forces personnel problems with the CDA system if any are solved not by the individual jawan but taken up on his behalf by his regiment. The same can be done at the community chief’s office level also.

5. Internal Affairs: This is the department that should report directly to the State Internal Affairs Commission and should be something like the Zebra division in national intelligence services. Its primary job should be to police the policemen. One important point should be noted that this division should not have any collaboration with the other departments or divisions of the police. This department should take no men or material help from the police and it’s budgeting, planning and operations should be handled directly by an officer of Jt. D.G.P level who reports to the State Internal Affairs Commission. This arrangements works well in the intelligent services where IB and R&AW directors / Secretary (R) are junior to the cabinet secretary but still directly report to the P.M. Also there the zebra units of IB/RAW (internal policing) report directly to the Directors of IB or R&AW but even that chain of reporting can be broken on receipt of sensitive information which can be directly reported to the P.M. It may not be practical to run this department like the intelligence services but some good points should be imbedded in the working of this department. The men and women who man this department should be clear of their primary goal, that they are enforcers of the old saying “justice to all, favours to none”. A quasi judicial setup like the court martial (GCM) in armed forces should also be setup in the force. This setup should work directly under the SIAC. Three Officers at least 2 Ranks higher than the guilty officers should constitute the GCM. This will help faster resolution of cases rather than the current practice where the cases get dragged for years leading to low or very poor conviction rate.

Investigation

Anything and just anything which is done would be better than what the situation is today. This aspect is something that most policemen as well as citizens dread. This forms a core of the problem that any state with high levels of violence has to endure. To begin with, the state should create a parallel organisation for investigation as far as possible. There should be some clear distinctions between this and the law & order division.

The demarcation should be as follows:

1. This should be a separate division. This division should report direct to the S.I.A.C and no one else.

2. They should not wear any uniforms.

3. They should not be confused with the prosecution service as their job and prosecution’s job are totally different.

4. Duplicate the rank system of the police force in the investigation set up also although size it as per its own requirements.

5. This should be a target based job. The more water tight the case these fellows can create the better the chances of jail become for the criminal.

6. They should not operate from police stations as investigations are sometime prejudiced by the local police and fair investigations are impossible in such circumstances.

The reasons why such an independent force needs to be created,

1. We need a professional set up who just does the job of investigating the actual crime, the motives, the evidences collection, etc.

2. The question arises as to why can’t this be done by the ordinary cop or the detective division and the answer is 1. the cop is untrained 2. over loaded 3. ill equipped 4. can have a vested interest.

We need a force that is specifically trained for the job, has a sound judicial knowledge of evidence gathering with a mindset of gaining conviction from it, is not loaded with regular policing activities, ordinarily does not have a vested interest as his interaction with public and government is limited, can be trained and re trained on newer scientific values and methods when need arises, easier to equip the force with the most modern and scientific methods in investigation as far as possible.

What is the situations now, the ordinary cop has to go to the scene of crime (most cops avoid going there as they would have to fill up tons of papers, report to court for the next 5-10 years of his life – no matter where ever he/she is posted, his/her comes in contact with all kinds of elements against whom he/she does not get any protection from his/her department). What happens next, he/she is untrained in any scientific evidence collection, so the moment it reaches the prosecution office, he is hounded by acquisition of corruption and poor evidence gathering. This does not stop at this first level, as it then moves to the courts where he/she faces the ire of the judge for the same. Look at a person who is just 12 pass or a B.A from some college where they did not have the teachers coming to teach and had to work in the teachers fields to get pass marks are now told to gather DNA, Chemical samples, etc from the scene of crime. Is there no thought in all this?

The system should simple and have clearly defined working rules. As soon as a scene of crime is found, the first to come after the initial cops should be the investigators. They should be equipped with men and machines to reach the scene of crime within 15-30 minutes in any part of country. This is necessary as most of the evidence has to be collected in the golden hour of the incident (this is not to say that it cannot be done later on nut that would only increase the cost and waste more time and manpower and engage even more expensive equipment for a longer period of time). After clearing the scene of crime, they should then get in touch with the prosecution office and create the case if it is deemed for further investigation and criminal justice proceeding.

Thus onus of gathering, storing, cataloguing and investigating the evidence in a scene of crime should be therefore totally rest with this division.

Levels of State Police:

D.G.P (Rank of Lt. General)

Something like CDS (Main reference to the state government/Internal Affairs Commission on all police matters ,also part of the internal affairs board of the state government. His main job should be helping the state make and update policies. For others he should be the main guide for all uniformed police officers under him/her. His position should be like Lord Krishna in Mahabharata, never involved directly in any conflict or procedure but always around to correct or laud when things go that way.

JOINT D.G.P (Rank of Major General) / Head of Division

His main job should be that of Heading the division, secondly coordination within the division that he is heading and secondly at the level of inter division coordination. This process would eliminate the multi layer authority that is prevalent at the top in bureaucracy currently.

COUNTY (District) CHIEF /HEAD OF SUB DIVISIONS like Special Ops, Administration, etc (RANK OF Brigadier)

An upgrade from the current position of an SSP (rank of Colonel) for the county chief will help get the necessary experience and knowledge in running the county professionally. This upgrade would help the county chief get more clout in gathering information and providing help mainly due to his seniority than what is possible today. He would be heading different divisions in his county making him the focal point at a level much nearer than what is there today. Today the convergence is at the level of the police chiefs of the state (D.G.P) as there are Add D.G.P’s handling individual branches like Intelligence, railways, Law and Order, etc. This delays information access and disbursement which is critical these days.

SUB COUNTY CHIEF (RANK OF Colonel)

This position should involve supporting the County chief with effective managing the county police. They should help coordinate and support the efforts of the community chiefs with the inputs available and help maintain the standards set by the County chief/Jt. DGP/DGP/State Internal Affairs Commission. They should work as the a) Personal Staff officer (Heading the office of the county chief/Handling Administration-Internal Affairs/Office Coordination) b) General Staff officer (Coordinating the county operations). Once they garner the experience of working in the staff offices, these officers could then be promoted to head the Counties.

COMMUNITY CHIEF (RANK of Lt. Colonel)

Currently this position is at the level of the Inspector (3 star JCO/Army equivalent-Subedar major). This is one of the most pathetic situations of Indian Police systems where a person who has no professional expertise handles most of the jobs at the public interface levels. As this will be the biggest and probably the most shocking change in the system, Question will arise as to why the post needs to be staffed by a Lt Col rank officer? The answer is very clear and simple, this position is one where the chief of police/Local politicians/MP/MLA try and make the best use of the current S.H.O’s level officers for their own selfish interests. The situation has reached such levels where even contempt proceedings by superior courts against them fail to get them to implement its directives. This promotion of rank of the community chief to a Lt. Col equivalent will push up the quality of policing at the public interface levels. The right kind of direction and leadership which is currently missing will get infused in the system. The pattern of using the size of the area as a bench mark for keeping this position under a JCO rank officer should be changed. The benchmark should be the population of the community as that is the real reflection of how well the system can be governed. Imagine if size is used as a criterion then areas like Ladakh or Thar Desert would need 10 times more than the current number of police stations for hardly 20-25 peoples each under their jurisdiction.

JOINT LAW & ORDER OFFICER or JOINT INSVESTIGATION OFFICER (RANK OF Major)

A promotee from the second rank in the police service, he or she should be able to take in charge of at least larger community locations like special zones, special buildings of strategic and national relevance, etc within a community area. He or she should be able to bring in the expertise and experience that one expects an officer with 10-12 years of service to have.

DEPUTY LAW & ORDER OFFICER or DEPUTY INSVESTIGATION OFFICER (RANK OF Captain)

A promotee from the first rank in the police service, he or she should be able to take in charge of at least smaller police positions like special small zones within a community area. He or she should be able to bring in the expertise and experience that one expects an officer with 5-6 years of service to have.

ASST. LAW & ORDER OFFICER or ASST. INSVESTIGATION OFFICER (RANK OF Lt)

This should be the lowest level which should have any interaction with the public. As policing is a very complicated job, they should be recruited and trained on the lines of a commissioned officer and not on the lines of an ordinary jawan. The officers need to be trained in new law, order and other crime control techniques. For any level in the force to succeed, it would need right kind of back up in form of better electronic surveillance, better intelligence gathering, and better crime scene analysis techniques. The officer on the street needs to realise that what ever good he or she does, the backup in the other departments would work to complete his job. Each district not only need police stations but independent mobile and static Crime scene analysis labs, Mobile and static electronic surveillance equipment, mobile and static command posts and other allied crime fighting equipment. He or she needs to realise that in case he is hit or even lays down his life on the job, his or her family would be taken care of. This is the support that is currently missing in the system.

AGE / PROMOTIONS: Change the retirement age from 60 to 45. The system should work in this way.

1. Reduce the retirement age to 45 for the rank of Community Chief (Time Scale Promoted). This should be something on the lines of grade review/performance review with numerical scoring system used in all his ACRs since he/she joined the force. If he does not meet the criteria for further promotion, then retire him at that age. This would have the best effect as we would expect younger officers interacting with the people in the community. On the field newer ideas would be able to move around in the system.

2. In case the officer meets the required criteria for promotion to become Sub District Chief, then promote him to become the same for a period of 5 years maximum (age 50).

3. In case the officer meets the required criteria for promotion to become District Chief, then promote him to become the same (age 53). If he does not meet the criteria, retire him at the post of Sub district chief.

4. In case the officer meets the required criteria for promotion to become Jt. DGP, then promote him to become the same for a period of 3 years maximum (age 56). If he does not meet the criteria, retire him at the post of District chief.

5. In case the officer meets the required criteria for promotion to become DGP, then promote him to become the same for a period of 4 years maximum (age 60). If he does not meet the criteria, retire him at the post of Jt. DGP.

In case the officer reaches the post of community chief at the age of 42 then he/she should be given a proportional increase in the tenure to that post. This way the operational jobs mainly till the level of Community chiefs will get handled by relatively younger officers and the more strategic jobs mainly above the community chief get handled by more senior officers. New ideas can get floated in the field jobs as younger officers get a chance to become field chiefs. An average age of promotion of 4-6 years (time scale promoted) or 2-3 years (Board promoted) can be maintained for any police officer. This pyramid type structure can work towards improving the quality of people at the top.

All the officers should have passed through all levels. There should be no structural intake from outside at senior levels. If the Police needs certain talents that are not available in their setup then they can call in specialist who can work in the system as OSD (officer on special duty) on temporary duty. If this specialist provides a tremendous value addition for the organisation, then he/she can be absorbed in the system. This however should not be made into a periodic process like Deputation in IB or R&AW. The biggest difference between deputation and OSD system is that in deputation one has to apply but in OSD his/her specialisation is observed by the organisation and then an offer is made to the person. This somehow is very similar to the AL QEIDA recruitment process

The concept of policing is totally different from the role played in other uniform services. They need to have the best placed structures in place. The biggest reason being the fact that they are the most public face of any government in India. All promotions until the level of Community Chiefs should be based on ACRs and time bound methodology only. The best Human resource brain should map out a points based matrix chart for all police promotions. To give incentive to hard and exceptional officers, a method of departmental examination and service medal based promotion should be worked out. After this rank the focus should on ACR, Physical and Mental abilities along with the grades attained while doing various departmental courses and examination.

CURRENT POLICE FORCE:

As for the current force, get a psychological and physical analysis done for the entire force. It is possible that 95% of the force will fail the same and it would not be possible for any sane government either centre or state to replace all of them. The way out of this is to get this current police force as reservist police or riot control battalions or VIP duties in the state. Change the uniform of all police for especially the reservist so the chance of mischief by disgruntled elements is greatly reduced. If we do not allow such a radical change in the setup to work the there is no way that you can make a quality difference to the policing in India. For a serious problem like the police functioning, a serious and quick solution needs to be worked out. There is no other way a menace like this can get solved. The power brokers are entrenched too deeply in the system to root them out suddenly. This change is based on the ancient Indian saying “Kill the snake and save the stick too”. Remove post like D.G.P (Housing, Modernisation, Administration, Law & order, Crime etc). The state should have one D.G.P so that he or she is able to work full all his concepts about modern policing. This multi D.G.P setup has given the state a chance to politicians to reward even the Bad ACR officers and punish the good officers by pushing them into useless positions like D.G.P Housing etc. This way they could always say that they are not removing any honest and upright officer from service nor are demoting him or her.

An example of the excess posts created in the force same came to light when an UP cadre IG rank officer (“deptt of rules and manuals”) recently became a “Drag Queen”. One needs to know what has been the merit of this officer to get promoted to the rank of an IG. Why has a department of Rules and Manuals created at the police headquarters? What is the work that this IG handles? Does this department need an officer of the rank of a Major general (Handling a Division of nearly 10,000 personnel) to head what can be handled directly by some junior officer. One needs to take a critical look at the state of Maharastra where small cities have police commissioner rank officers heading the show there, whereas those areas are generally be governed by DCP rank officers. For e.g. Nashik has DCP/SP/SSP Nashik – he looks after nashik, then Jt C.P/DIG – Nashik, then IG-Nashik Range. The system has been built in such a way that all I.P.S will retire a minimum as IG’s even though they may have had adverse remarks against him/her in his/her entire career. Better still is the fact that in case the officer feels that his promotion is getting blocked, he just moves over to any P.S.U as vigilance officer or some I.G/D.I.G in any C.P.O. There he enjoys full luxuries and benefits of the P.S.U / C.P.O maintaining all along his job security, improving the chances of getting his ACR on track and finally waiting for an opportunity to get back into his original cadre. The worst part in this is the C.P.O setup where the officer doesn’t know any job or ethics of the force but gets into prime positions. The direct C.P.O cadre always curse the fact that when the hard operations based postings have to be given, it is they who have to take them but when they reach the top D.I.G and above level softer positions, it is the IPS officers who take all those posts. Since the beginning of the Central paramilitary organisations, it has never happened that any of them have been headed by a CPO cadre officer. Really strange if we compare it with a setup like Army where to think a Non Army man heads the Army would be virtually day dreaming. Imagine an officer of the rank of DGP of Bihar or UP police is made to head a specialised force like the NSG. The officers in these states are mostly in the top chair due to their superior qualities in deft political handling rather than their policing abilities. Does the head of N.S.G require any specific skills or is it just that he needs to be an I.P.S officer close to the powers in the centre? How many situations of the NSG kind has the officer handled in his tenure will not be rocket science? What that officer can do in the specialised forces like NSG is anybodies guess? It has led to a situation where army has already stopped sending its best men for the NSG. It is an unwritten law that no officer who has done staff college is sent to the NSG which in other way means that the officers who are likely to make it to the Brig and above ranks are not sent to the NSG. Nothing can be more sad then this. We need to immediately change this as the quality of a premier organisation like NSG has already started to suffer. No army chief is willing to sacrifice his best officers to work under an IPS led organisation. Our policy makers need to act in this on an S.O.S basis.

RECURITMENT:

This is a disaster as far as the current procedure is concerned. We have for a single organisation four levels of recruitment: IPS, the PCS, the SI and the constable level.

IPS: Why is it needed? Whom does it serve? How does it help? Why can’t PCS level recruitment do the job of the IPS? How has it helped the independent India in the last 55 years? Can’t we do without it?

PCS: Why was it started? Who does it help? Is it not a replica from the White man handling cream jobs and selected brown men loyal to the raj handling slightly better assignments than their other non loyal peers? Why can’t it do the job of the IPS if recruited and trained in a professional manner?

SI: What is difference between PCS and SI level in job description? Aren’t they the beast of burden? Aren’t they corrupt, unprofessional and unchangeable level of the police force? What career prospects has the system devised for them? If one is just looking at the level of educational qualification for this level, then is it not the same as IPS and PCS officers have?

Constable: What did we have in mind when we continued after independence with this untrained, poorly paid, unprofessional, most corrupt public face of the police and also the government? What does “GENERAL DUTY” job assignment signify when this level of the organisation is the one which is the first one to confront a scene of crime/terror/dispute, etc?

The solution is to end the 4 levels of recruitment and change it as follows:

1. Club IPS/PCS/CPO exams and hold the same under an all India banner monitored by the UPSC. After successfully clearing the training at a central government run facility, split the group into two services the C.P.S and the S.P.S. The C.P.S would stand for central police service and S.P.S stands for state police service. The C.P.S officers would handle central forces like C.S.F, C.P.F, etc and S.P.S should be handling the concerned state police organisations only. In case that the C.P.S finds that there are good officers in the S.P.S, they can offer an option of getting absorbed in the C.P.S cadre at a later stage. The method of choosing a county/organisation for the successful candidate has to be based on factors like mental ability, physical ability, domicile, post vacancy, his/her choice, family hereditary rights (if father, grandfather, etc have worked in the same county/organisation) – something that is very similar to the officer recruitment/regimentation in the armed forces. A psychological test has to be made mandatory for all staffers who wear a police uniform.

2. Close down SI level recruitment.

3. Stop constable recruitment for all public interactive duties and open it only for reservist/Guard duty/Ceremonial/Mounted police, etc. Recruitment done at the state level but staff is trained at centrally run schools.

The current organisation setup has strangled all our efforts in reforming the system. A mere change in designations or procedures will not help and the system needs to be either dismantled and then rebuild or if nothing else be totally revamped.

TRAINING:

This area spells a disaster for the country. The best way forward is that centre takes over all the state police training colleges and runs them like a central institute. This would not be opposed by the states as most states are hardly in a condition of run them properly. Currently even if the central government supplies the state governments with specialised weapons or equipment for their police force, their effectiveness is limited due to the limited knowledge of the men and women who operate these machines. The training academies can be run under the command of the central police training academy division. This will ensure a standardisation in the level and quality of trained policemen and women through out the country. Training is provided only once to a policeman with very few officers being an exception. Open specialised police training colleges and make the scores achieved in these colleges as the benchmark for promotion at all the levels. Make these courses in line with the current duties performed by the police officers. Make refresher courses for even the basics that are taught at the Police training Colleges. I can make a rough estimate of courses an Army officer takes during his working career (IMA, Infantry school/combat college, junior command, commando school, Staff college, Higher command, National defence college, etc). This does not include any refresher courses like High Altitude, CI ops or even war games that enhance your already acquired skills.

I know that what I am writing now might look insane but ask some one in 1910 if he/she thought if India would be free, ask someone in 1980 that would be have something as simple as a phone on demand, they would say are you crazy, ask someone in 1980's ("Hindu" rate of growth years) if we would be running at 8% + growth in a year.......I do not think they would have said yes....so my country men and women, try and keep on trying because if you do not try you would be condemned to live like this.