Case for Police Reforms

Case for Police Reforms

Source: The Indian Express

News: September 22 is celebrated as Police Reforms Day as the Supreme Court gave a landmark judgment on police reforms on this day in 2006.

Issues plaguing Police system:

  • Colonial nature of police: Current policing system is still governed by the Police Act of 1861 based on the concept of “politically useful” police to ensure dominance of the imperial masters over the subject people.
  • Hypocrisy on part of the British while designing the policing system for India: In Britain police officers were “answerable to the law and the law alone”. But, in the case of  India  they enabled the executive to have complete authority over the police like the Irish model.
  • Unprofessional nature of police to ensure internal security for  economic development as economic development depends on sound law and order. But, According to the Institute for Economics and Peace, the cost of violence to the country is 7% of its GDP in 2020.
  • In the current system, Police are hesitant to take action against legislators, but due to criminalisation of politics, the number of persons entering parliament with questionable backgrounds are increasing with each general election. 
  • Incapability of state police forces to tackle internal security challenges such as unrest in Jammu & Kashmir, maoist problem and insurgencies in the Northeast region.
  • Low public confidence in Police: Lower strata of society feel that there are different sets of rules and laws for different sections of society. Lower strata feel that law favors rich and powerful.
  • Complex nature of law and order problems due to international dimensions of organized crime such as arms trafficking, drug trafficking and cybercrimes requiring sophistication and expertise on the part of the police.
  • Poor infrastructure such as poor housing conditions and long working hours(an average policeman works for 14hours a day and does not get any weekly off) and also shortage of  human resource resulting in subpar performance of police personnel.
  • Anomalous arrangement in policing system: Central  investigating agencies such as Central Bureau of Investigation(CBI) and Intelligence Bureau(IB) do not have statutory basis. CBI  derives its power to investigate from the Delhi Special Police Establishment Act, 1946. Similarly, Intelligence Bureau was set up through an administrative order in 1887.

Way forward:

  • Constitution of internal security doctrine to tackle internal security challenges as per the perception of the ruling dispensation.
  • Devise mechanism to insulate police from the influence of people with political or financial clout.
  • Government should invest in filling vacancies and improving transport, communications and forensics.
  • Focus on mental and physical well being of police personnel by introducing 12-hour shifts and gradually aim to achieve eight-hour shifts.
  • Adoption of future technologies to fulfill grassroot police requirements can be done by setting up a high-powered technology mission by the central government to adopt future technologies.
  • Extension of police reforms to different policing wings of the Centre such as CBI, Intelligence Bureau etc. Central Bureau of Investigation(CBI) and Intelligence Bureau must be given statutory basis.  

Article: A recipe for reform(Prakash Singh)

Article Link: https://indianexpress.com/article/opinion/columns/how-to-fix-india-police-force-cbi-ib-8168723/

Yojna IAS Daily current affairs eng med 30th Sep

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