ENFORCEMENT AGENCIES

Kiran Bedi
"Policing is the Power to
Correct, the Power to
Prevent, and the Power to
get things done. It is the
most effective protector of
human rights just as it could
be its worst violator".
WHAT ARE THEY!
o Law enforcement agencies work at the local, state, and federal levels to keep
order and protect citizens. Police personnel attend at accident scenes and other
emergencies, conduct search and rescue operations, and educate the public
about safety and other matters. The job of a police officer is one that requires a
person to be physically and mentally fit, as well as of good character. 
o City police forces are just one example of law enforcement agencies. Officers
and detectives have jurisdiction within the city limits to enforce the law and
investigate local crimes. Law enforcement agencies also include state police
forces. This force has jurisdiction over the entire state, and is usually responsible
for law enforcement on state highways. State police departments may offer
training to recruits for forces that are too small to perform this function
themselves, as well as provide protection services to the state governor.
Police

• The Police force in the country is entrusted with the responsibility of

maintenance of public order and prevention and detection of crimes. Each state
and union territory of India has its own separate police force. Article 246 of the
Constitution of India designates the police as a state subject, which means that
the state governments frame the rules and regulations that govern each police
force. These rules and regulations are contained in the police manuals of each
state force.
• The Police force in the state is headed by the Director General of
Police/Inspector General of Police. Each State is divided into convenient
territorial divisions called ranges and each police range is under the
administrative control of a Deputy Inspector General of Police. A number of
districts constitute the range. District police is further sub-divided into police
divisions, circles and police-stations.
• Besides the civil police, states also maintain their own armed police and have
separate intelligence branches, crime branches, etc. Police set-up in big cities
like Delhi, Kolkata, Mumbai, Chennai, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Ahmedabad,
Nagpur, Pune, etc. is directly under a Commissioner of Police who enjoys
magisterial powers. All senior police posts in various states are manned by the
Indian Police Services (IPS) cadres, recruitment to which is made on all-India
basis.
• The Central Government maintains Central Police forces, Intelligence Bureau
(IB), Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) , institutions for training of police
officers and forensic science institutions to assist the state in gathering
intelligence, in maintaining law and order, in investigating special crime cases
and in providing training to the senior police officers of the state governments.
• The Indian police, like many other government institutions, are a product of
colonial times. Indians are indebted to the British for many state-run
establishments like the railways, postal services and even the basic
administrative framework that runs this diverse country. Most of these state
institutions have accommodated change and undergone drastic restructuring.
Yet the state of affairs within the police force has seen little change in the past
62 years.
• It is true that the colonial police were far different in appearance from current
policemen. But changes in policing have been largely cosmetic. New uniforms
are not real change. The administrative principles and philosophy behind the
police force in India are still tainted with distrust – by superior officers of those
of lower rank, and by ordinary people of the police, and vice versa.
• This lack of change is intentional. Politicians who ruled the country for the past
six decades and more at no point wanted a police service independent of
political interference. So they successfully retained the system whereby police
services were subjugated to the political authority of the ruling elite or political
parties. While superior officers were rewarded for their political allegiances,
lower rank officers were left at the mercy of their superiors.
• Corruption, nepotism and the use of brute force are inherent evils within the
policing system, irrespective of the political color and ideology of the ruling
government. The police are primarily used for social control. It is therefore
natural that criminal investigations are given the lowest priority. This is a
sentiment dating back to colonial times and is reflected in the current
infrastructural deficit in the police services.
WHY THIS POLICE FEAR?

Is it because the laws empower these agencies

to trap anyone at anytime?
• Most police officers lack investigative tools and training. Yet they are provided
with combat weapons to control people. Police training at the constabulary level
is focused on mob control while criminal investigation is ignored. Police officers
below the rank of superintendent do not even know the basic legal framework
of the criminal law, and no regular academic training is provided for these
officers.
• In such an environment, criminal investigations are conducted with brute force
at the whim of the investigating officer. It is a common story that unless there is
political pressure or incentives driven by bribes, police officers refuse to
investigate crimes. Those that are investigated begin and end with a confession.
Most investigations result in acquittals in a court of law.
• Over the past several years there have been several attempts to address the
problems within the police service. The National Human Rights Commission, the
Supreme Court and its subordinate courts as well as the civil society have
spearheaded most such efforts.
• Unfortunately, India does not have a functioning National Police Commission. One
that came into existence in 1977 was smothered out of life by May 1981 and the
government largely ignored its reports – eight in number.
• Yet in the past 10 years the Supreme Court of India and the National Human Rights
Commission have come up with several recommendations and directives aimed at
addressing the blatant violations of law practiced by the police and delinking the
police from the claws of corrupt politicians.
• Of particular importance are the judgments delivered by the Supreme Court
condemning the use of torture and the general disregard for the law within the
police ranks. The jurisprudence laid down by the court in a series of judgments from
the Nandini Satpati case to the Prakash Singh case, dealt with various facets of
policing from torture to criminal investigations to delinking politics and the police.
The National Human Rights Commission also tried to do its bit by recommending
government measures to reduce abuse of power by the police.
• All the recommendations fell upon deaf ears when it came to policymakers, who
continuously ignored the valuable suggestions aimed at ironing out the creases of
one of the primary institutions of the country. The union government could do little
to control the police, as they were under the authority of state governments in the
constitutional framework.
• As of today, the state of affairs in the Indian police force is deplorable and
condemnable to the core. The police force is considered synonymous with
corruption and criminality. Yet there is hardly any sensible discussion in the country
about the role the defunct Indian police play in undermining democracy and
democratic norms.
• Still one cannot say there have been no attempts at reform. Unfortunately,
suggestions for reforms were usually made by jurists and academics who could
prepare reports at short notice to suit the whims of the governments that appointed
them. Their recommendations reflected the spineless character of their authors.
Predicted reasons for this behavior
• Education
• Political Pressure
• Personal Grievances
• Security
EDUCATION
• " the aim of education is not the acquisition of information, although important,
or acquisition of technical skills, though essential in modern society, but the
development of that bent of mind, that attitude of reason, that spirit of democracy
which will make us a responsible citizen .“ - Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan.
Makeover Via MIT
for Indian Police
Research Team Helps Initiate
Reforms to Fix Image Problem,
Build Morale Among Officers
Officer Hazari Lal's police
station was part of a two-year
project MIT launched in
Rajasthan state that sought to
burnish the police's image.
• SHAHJAHANPUR, India -- The dominant image of an Indian police officer, etched
in people's minds and embedded in movies, is that of a slothful, rude, potbellied
and bribe-taking constable. But the police officers protest the depiction as
unfair, saying they are overworked, underpaid and subject to abrupt transfers
that disrupt any attempt to get to know the neighborhoods they pledge to
protect.
• Hazari Lal, a shy, mustached officer, has been posted to 13 stations in 13 years.
And like other Indian police officers, he is on call 24/7, with no weekly day off,
he said. "The police work without any rest. It makes us irritable all the time. And
we take it out on the people who come to us for help," Lal, a station house
officer in Shahjahanpur, about 80 miles southwest of New Delhi, said as he took
off his khaki-colored beret and placed his two cellphones inside it. "We always
carry an unknown fear called 'transfer' in our hearts because we can be posted
out to a faraway station anytime."
• Researchers conducted a survey in 2005-2006 in the western state of Rajasthan
and found that more than 70 percent of crime victims never reported incidents
because many felt that the police would either do nothing or ask for a bribe to
file a complaint. More than 80 percent said no constable had ever visited their
neighborhood. The survey also found that an average of 64 percent of police
officers were transferred every year.
• The MIT economic researchers launched a two-year pilot project to try to fix the
widespread distrust and hostility that Indians nurse about the police and to rev
up the morale of the police in 162 stations in Rajasthan.
• Under the program, they gave police officers one day off each week, froze
transfers, invited a community volunteer every day to the station to observe the
police work, rotated work among officers and trained the police in etiquette,
stress management and scientific investigation skills
• "For a policeman, the personal life is nil. But during the MIT project, we spent more
time with our family and felt relaxed at work. We no longer felt pushed around by
politicians who interfered in our investigation and threatened to transfer us," said
Rajkumar Sharma, a constable in Jaipur, the capital of Rajasthan. "We were also
taught how to attend to the complainants politely. To offer them a seat when they
entered the station and not shoo them away or tell them to stand quietly in a
corner."
• The MIT team said that the freeze on transfers produced a 19 percent drop in the
public's fear of police. The behavior training yielded a 30 percent increase in crime
victims' satisfaction with the handling of complaints. But the weekly day off
produced only a 3 percent increase in police morale.
• Indian police, a legacy of the 19th-century colonial British system, have been
trained to be the coercive arm of the ruler to create fear and crush the subject with
force. That image has stuck, and many say corruption, abuse and torture are
widespread.
• But officials complain that the police are severely understaffed, underfunded
and overstretched. Although the MIT survey found crimes underreported, most
every other problem is brought to the police department's doorstep, officers
complain -- including power outages, water shortages and clogged drains, and
teacher absenteeism. When politicians and VIPs move on the road, the police
are called to guard the route and escort their vehicles.
• Several government committees and a Supreme Court ruling have
recommended reforms. But they have not been implemented because of
bureaucratic and political unwillingness to loosen control over the police force.
"Two years ago, we kept pleading with the government to give the police a day
off in a week and to have a shift system. They said no," said M.K. Devarajan,
additional director general of police in Jaipur, who supervised the MIT project.
"There is a lack of political will and resources. It is not politically popular to do
anything for the police in this country."
• Lal's station has only one vehicle, and constables often have to use their
personal motorcycles for work. Local industrialists helped them build a kitchen,
a water tank and gate at the station, Lal said. "We don't even have enough
furniture to sit on and have to request shops in the area to send us chairs. My
constables have to pay for the petrol themselves when they go out on duty. Their
cellphone bills are not paid by the government. Can a constable afford all this
from his humble salary?" he said. "And then the country expects us to be
absolutely honest."
• According to the MIT report, the community observer program did not have any
impact on softening the public perception of the police.
Need for cordial relation between police and
people
• Terror plots are foiled by the police very often because of the cooperation of the
community and its network of informers. Local people should feel comfortable
working with the police, and the police's familiarity with the area is critical.
Let’s understand…
• When you're driving down the highway and you see a police car with it's lights flashing
and a vehicle pulled over, do you think "Why isn't that cop out catching the criminals"?
• Police officers, like other employees, are expected to perform their job functions.
Most all occupations are subject to personnel evaluations. Imagine yourself as a
member of a Police Commission, where your job is to evaluate a police officer. How
would you do this?
• Let's assume you are a salesman. Your performance evaluation will be based on
several factors, most likely including number of contacts, number of sales, dollar
amount of sales, and so on....
• Your company has a policy that ALL sales are final. You have received information that
one of the products that you are selling, let's call it product A, has been rumored to be
defective. Your supervisor tells you that there is a big push this month to sell product
A. Because you are a company man, you will sell the product, knowing returns will not
be allowed. Because your compensation is related to performance, you will be
vigorous in your sales approach
• A police officer is doing the same. The majority of police officers out there are good,
honest, working men and women. Like any profession, there are some bad apples.
They are the ones that give law enforcement a bad image. For the most part, whether
they believe in the law or not, they will do their job, as required. Many of the officers
try to change laws and/or the ways things are done, but they have a difficult task, as
they directly confront the institution that compensates them! Another point to
remember, is that police officers are trained and continually reinforced with the
thought that speed kills, that accidents are caused by speed, and so on...
• If a police officer tries to fight the system, to change the way laws are enforced, or to
question WHY, many times their peers shun them.
• One should encourage all people of society to get to know police officers. Share your
thoughts, expose them to different ideas, intelligently discuss traffic-related views.
Let's not try to place blame as to who's at fault. Instead, let's work together to change
and/or protect the way we look at things. Who knows, you might even end up friends.
JAI HIND!
References
 Websites :
1. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-
dyn/content/article/2009/02/22/AR2009022202206.html
2. http://
www.infibeam.com/Books/info/kiran-bedi/indian-police-i-see/9788120737907.
html
3. http://www.wisegeek.com/what-are-the-different-law-enforcement-agencies.ht
ml
4. http://india.gov.in/citizen/police.php
5. http://www.upiasia.com/Human_Rights/2009/06/15/indias_police_worse_than
_criminals/5954
/
Thank you!
- Swapnil Pa
l