Indian Police (35)

ORGANISATIONAL CHALLENGES OF THE POLICE It is India’s good fortune that its fabric of law and order withstood the onslaught of growing complexity of the Indian society lest fragile is its system of policing. The fact that the police systems in a few neighboring countries of Asia and Africa are worse cannot be a solace as the political, social and economical structures forming the cornerstones of those countries have tout a fait different backgrounds and value systems from ours. India is a crucible wherein the dynamics and relevance of democracy in the third world are experimented with. The Indian police system must necessarily meet the latitant aspirations of the democracy in fulfilling its desinent objective of maintaining internal order arid security. This dimension added to the problems of policing in India. The Indian polity confronts its police with ever-greater challenges while affording it an increasingly limited wherewithal to do so. The Indian police system dodders while taken on ride by the shocks of the growing complexity of the Indian society and its relevance to society is luxated in the seemingly unending luctation for relevance. The tenor of the setback lies in the failure to foresee and continuously keep the system one step ahead. The hazard of the Indian-police lies in this immobility of its organizational structure. The existing police system is utterly devoid of any adjustment mechanism that keeps it relevant to the zeitgeist. A time-to-time review and concomitant updating of the police organisation become sine qua non the circumstances. A systematic study of the policing in India with an adequate pernoctation to screen the latest researches and findings in relevant fields of social and political systems, science and technology in reorienting the police organisation and administration is an essential parameter in the vital exercise. A police setup worth its salt should meet the specific needs of the policing. The police setup must necessarily be raucle in its frame to be capable of absorbing the shocks to which it would often be exposed. Secondly, motive factors should be substructed in the body of the organisation as sound motivation alone can make policing a purposeful activity. This should be

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reinforced with external motive factors that can be infused to the organisation e re nata. Thirdly, the system should be organized so as to generate optimism and confidence. Another important aspect that should weigh in evolving an effective police organisation is evolving a mechanism whereby every police officer or unit is put in charge of a specific job matching his or its competence and aptitude. An element of levity should be brought to policing so that the work in hand can be attended to with genuine involvement by each police officer. Another strategic principle of a healthy police organisation is having absolute faith and giving full responsibilities to subordinates with a concomitant reward and punishment system that follow at the heels. Any attempt to disturb the balance of faith, full responsibility and reward and punishment system is certain to fell the organisation into desuetude. The extant conception of collective responsibility through a chain of command has gone passe by its propensity to demotivate the real workers due to the corrupt ambitions of those at higher levels in the chain of command. Policing has grown of late to be such an independent field of specialisation that it is touts de force impossible for a mortal being to be proficient in even a single aspect of policing. It is rather a folly to fancy a police officer as being able to handle all aspects of policing though at different times. Hence, the need of specialization-oriented policing. The present managerial world is increasingly realizing the importance of human resources as organizational inputs. Unless all-out efforts are made to inhaust to police the creme de la creme of the country with exceptional attributes of probity, intelligence and commitment and impart eximious and purposeful training to bring out the best of each, no efforts at updating the organisation can bring about a sempiternal transformation in the setup. The fact that policing can be successful only with popular cooperation focuses the attention of the police organisation on the needs of building up its image. Although efforts are already afoot towards building up the image of the police, the depths of the possibilities are yet to be fully explored and exploited. A scientific approach in this score will make policing tanto uberior. Also, the scope for scholarly and intellectual activities in policing will make policing multi-dimensional and add to its effectiveness. The fremit reception given to intellectual activities in some quarters of policing may not go down too well with the future police planners. The future police organisation and administration should cater to the need of intellectual activities. The present police organisation and administrative system have to be overhauled in the near future as the ineffectiveness of the extant system becomes increasingly obvious with the flaws in the edifice starting to gape wider. The areas wherein restructuring may be desirable and the thrusts sine qua non to stuff the 243

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hiatus valde deflendus to have a featous police setup, quite capable of facing the challenges of the future are discussed tout court below. EXCLUSION OF SOCIAL LEGISLATIONS The proclivity of weighing the police with reinforcement of all types of legislations has become a major hazard to effective policing. While the proliferation of legislations in independent India made it impossible even to keep track of their numbers, it is senseless to expect the police as being able to enforce them all. The stupendous task of enforcing these legislations adversely affects the effectiveness of the police and corrodes its credibility. This is emphatically so with social legislations which pass out of our legislative houses sans cohibition. These progressive measures are inherently controversial in nature and their enforcement by the police weakens its credibility as an agency of serious business and peremptory order. It is plauditory to conceive of the police as a vehicle of progressive measures, but in the process, is certain to put both its credibility and professionalism into jeopardy as the social legislations lack depth and gravity to enforce them and assiduous enforcement may ricochet as an outcry of harassment and high-handedness. It is not in the interest of the country to expose its police to such civil contecks and suffer it thereby. India can have an independent social policing system under the social welfare ministry to which police officers with a flair for progressive measures may be deputed. The social policing system as a professional enforcement agency of the social welfare ministry can do an effective job in enforcing progressive social legislations with all their nuances, by fully devolving on it while saving the police organisation from the embarrassment of handling issues to which it is not equipped either mentally, professionally or organizationally. This measure will exeme the police organisation from unwarranted pressures and enhances its legitimacy in handling serious security and law and order issues. SPECIALISATIONS IN POLICING The growth of police functions as adnated to present life-style of increasing complexity is enormous of late with policing slinking to the vitals of all streaks of social and nonsocial living. Policing has become a high-tech affair these days with scopes for further advancements. Each major activity of policing like maintenance of order, investigation of crimes, collection of intelligence and security-operations have assumed such an independent status of nonesuch expertise and professionalism that these fields being inhered is neither desirable nor feasible. Nor in the circumstances, does shifting a functionary from one field of expertise to the other help his overall performance. Anfractuosity in any one of these fields of specialization for life is becoming a requisite as time goes by. 244

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The futuristic policing of India must have its subordinate police as professionals in a given field of specialization, say maintenance of order, crime investigation, intelligence collection or security operation with synergy manifesting only at higher levels. So, India may have independent law and order police, detective police, special police and security police, each separately recruited and trained for professionalism and expertise in their respective fields. Officers from all these specialized fields should be eligible to rise t general policing at higher levels on the basis of a pro rata quota system for promotions. PARALLEL CRIME ADMINISTRATION “The increased preoccupation of the police with law and order and security issues in view of the growing cataclysmic activities in the country has adversely affected effective, crime administration of late. Police stations have become registering stations as far as crime administration is concerned. The time of the local police is fordone with immediate issues of law and order and V.I.P. security, and in the process, crime investigation has become a casualty. The process may further deteriorate as security and law and order problems increase in coming years. Neither the crime staff at subordinate levels nor the supervisory staff at district and higher levels, in the melee, has the will or the resources to divert to crime investigation while the crime rate in the country is assuming dangerous proportions. Crime investigations should not be allowed to suffer because of disorder and insecurity in the country, as otherwise, a vicious circle may develop wherein disorder and insecurity lead to fall in investigation and flabby investigation in turn, to patulous disorder and insecurity. This triste development may be effectively dealt-with by an independent crime setup, parallel to the law and order outfit. The crime outfit should be responsible for the investigation of criminal cases and function under an Inspector General of Police who is responsible to the police chief, with a crime Deputy Inspector General of Police in each range. Each district may have a crime Superintendent of Police with the necessary number of detective Deputy Superintendents of Police, detective Inspectors, SubInspectors and constabulary to assist while only Sub-Inspectors and above are empowered t investigate cases. The Sub-Inspectors will be attached to various police stations with powers to register criminal cases and investigate only petty cases. The crime Superintendent of Police refers criminal cases of his district for investigation to Police Inspectors or Deputy Superintendents of Police, coming under him, on the basis of the gravity of the cases and take up exceptionally grave cases for personal investigation. The crime Deputy Inspectors General of Police may take up exceptionally sensational cases in his range for personal investigation. 245

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The crime outfit in a district must run parallel to the law and order outfit of the district. An independent crime outfit in district and state may exquisitely behove to a futuristic police setup by giving crime investigation a boost and insuring it against the peracute pangs of organizational maladies of the future. CONTROL ROOM-CENTERED POLICING The compulsions of urban policing are strikingly different from those of rural policing. Response time is the hallmark of urban policing where a delay of a few minutes can make a difference between death and life as criminals and terrorists with the most sophisticated communication, weapon system and hair-raising organizational accuracy overawe the police, pitted against them in the course of their criminal operations. The present police station oriented policing are incompetent to meet the challenges of the urban criminals either in resources or in organizational ingine. Unity, resourcefulness and speed form the spine of urban policing. The control room-centered policing in urban centers where men and transportation and latest communication facilities that work round the clock in shifts enables galvanic operations to tackle law and order problems. All town and cities require control rooms of appropriate sizes with a control room chief of a befitting rank. A control room of a metropolitan city having a population of more than fifty lakhs may be entrusted to a control room chief of the rank of Deputy Inspector General of police; a city having a population exceeding ten lakhs requires a chief of the rank of Superintendent of police to its control room; a city of a population exceeding a lakh may have a control room in charge of a Deputy Superintendent of Police; a town having a population of more than 20,000 may require an Inspector to head its control room; and a town with a population of less than twenty thousand may need a control room under a Sub-Inspector. Each control room may have four shift-officers of the rank immediately lower in rank; all subordinate staff of the town or city is kept under the control room’s disposal on round the clock shifts. The control room should be well connected with several channels of telephones, wireless sets, mobile telephones and other stateof-the-art communication equipments to strategic points, mobile vans, task forces, hospitals, fire force units, civil defence units, neighboring police units and residences of senior police officers and civil authorities. The control rooms should be equipped with the latest gadgets and sufficient transportation facilities for the maintenance of law and order. The law and order unit of the urban area may be headed by an officer of the rank above the rank of the chief of the control room. 246

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This outfit with unlimited resource at its disposal for launching any type of operation within a few minutes of communication may suffice to meet the challenges of maintaining law and order in urban areas in the new age. REORGANISATION OF INTELLIGENCE UNITS The place of collection and analysis of intelligence and special operations in policing including security operations, maintenance of law and order and crime investigation is sui generis as intelligence forms the building blocks of all nuances of the police operations. The police, operating to collect intelligence, form the substructure of the edifice of policing of the country. Indian intelligence system is yet to stand up to the enormous challenges thrown to it and it can nowhere be compared with its counterparts in developed and even a few developing countries. Various intelligence outfits of India are often found functioning at cross-purposes. India should reorganize and strengthen its intelligence outfit if it is to survive the challenges of the coming age. The Indian intelligence system should develop unity of purpose and operation by working under the umbrella of a unified intelligence authority headed by the union cabinet Secretary with intelligence chiefs of the police and military as members. The authority should affect a synergy of intelligence operations through its various wings of internal intelligence, foreign intelligence, counter-intelligence, military intelligence and security intelligence. Sufficient attention should be given to infuse entrain in the intelligence system of India and modernize its methods to raise it to a few degrees closer to the international standards. The interferences of officialdom should be eradicated from intelligence operations and a sense of commitment and dedication should be infused by making intelligence operations a lifelong career. An Inspector General of police, directly responsible to the state police chief, should head the state intelligence wing. The intelligence wing should be overall in charge of intelligence operations, pertaining to security, law and order and crime in the state. SPECIALLY TRAINED SECURITY OPERATORS The ultimate purpose of all police functions is public security. Either it is intelligence collection or crime investigation or maintenance of law and orderall roads lead to this single aspiration. Therefore, the security operations form the crown of policing activities without which all other police operations prove futile exercises. The India of the new age will need specially trained battalions of security operators in every state to take charge of the security of vital installations and VIPs. Each will work under the supervision of an Inspector General of police, 247

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responsible to the state police chief. Also, each state police unit will have a small commando force under the Inspector General of police to meet threats during emergencies like hijacking, VVIP security under difficult circumstances, complicated operations against terrorists etc. This special group will be brought into operation only under exceptionally difficult circumstances on the direct orders from the state police chief. Otherwise, it will be involved in continuous commando training of the highest order. The commandos will be well equipped with the wherewithal of commando operations of the latest order. Only select officers will be recruited to the group with extra emoluments to make the job really elite. The commando units of the central government will train the state commando forces. The need of commando groups in the state police will be increasingly felt in future as the menace of terrorism and sabotage grows uninhibited with the future possibility of peracute methods being accepted as legitimate ways of expressing political dissent. IMPROVED MANAGEMENT OF HUMAN RESOURCES The human aspect is the fulcrum of policing. Human comportment teethed with authority to restrain the human mass forms the essence of police activities. Policing essentially is human interaction, latitant in unending luctation to smite criminal and anti-social elements. It is the human quality in the force that determines its effectiveness and vitality. Therefore, human resource policy in a police organisation needs careful and gritty handling at the highest possible level. The present Indian environment of ruthless competitions impleached with a degringolade of values made human resources management a farce in India. The wherewithal of human resources management like recruitment, promotions, transfers, rewards, punishments etc, is no more employed for the maximum benefit of the organisation. Self-interests have undermined quality and character and organizational interests are subordinated to personal behoofs. Though this proclivity is prevalent in all fields in India, of late, its adverse effects are kenspeckle in police organisation as the line-system of the organisation makes the ingenuity of human resources management, a factor having direct bearing on the quality of the policing. While policing is becoming a dynamic part of the governance in urban areas, with the rise of urban pockets, the damage done by egregious management of human resources in the police cannot be exaggerated. The declension may go patulous with the passage of time if frack measures to arrest the depravation in human resources management are ignored. Diligent efforts at the highest level in the organisation to create a force characterized by integrity, commitment and intelligence may be the foremost 248

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need of a police organisation of the coming age. The prevalence of police administration over the general administration in the survival of a nation as a democratic and orderly country may necessitate future changes in recruitment and service condition rules to attract the very best talents of the country to the police organisation with extraordinary care to ensure that anything less than the best with clean antecedents does not step into the organisation. Once the ingine is inveigled into the fold of the organisation, the ingenerate need of retaining it in the organisation sans delusions and disappointments and improving upon its attributes gains added momentum. In the extant system, only those less than the best join the police organisation; less than satisfactory training is imparted to them that fail to infuse even elementary professionalism; and the practical experience in the field emaciates their noble ettles, if any are left alive, as an improvident fool’s paradise and causes them to fall in line with the mediocre. Futuristic India may not have an alternative to breaking this vicious circle for its survival and better managing its human resources by designing a training programme that makes a budding officer a thorough professional in policing, reinforces his noble ettles and changes the environment of the police organisation to inspire a subjacent faith in the right value system. TIME-BOUND PROMOTIONS The system of assessment of a subordinate’s work for promotion has fallen into utter desuetude and dangerous misuse by the prevalent corrupt atmosphere. India, in the interest of its future policing may do well to extricate the prospects of career developments like promotions from subjective assessments of corrupt influences by ensuring two periodical promotions in a time scale of twenty-five years. So, every Police Constable retires minimum as an Assistant Sub-Inspector of Police, a Sub-Inspector as a Deputy Superintendent of Police and an Indian Police Service Officer as an Inspector General of Police. The present incidence of most of the Police Constables retiring as Police Constables may not go well with the concept of ex aequo society of futuristic India and pose a threat to the health of the police organisation in the environment of increased awakening of the 21st century. The officers of the Indian Police Service may be posted on first appointment as Superintendents of Police to make the service more attractive, though not to districts directly and the dual recruitments at the rank as in vogue now require to be stopped to make police recruitment meaningful. Officers in exceptional cases may have avenues for special promotions in addition to the two, provided in a time scale of twenty-five years, on the basis of written examination and on an overall assessment of their career of twentyfive years by high-powered committees formed for the purpose. The 249

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promotion of constabulary in exceptional cases to the ranks of PSIs and above should be screened by the Police Board of the State; the promotion of PSIs as Superintendents of Police and above should be screened by the All India Police Authority and the promotion of IPS Officers as Director General of Police and above by a Central Cabinet Committee headed by the Prime Minister. This arrangement will ensure fearless and professional policing sans complaisance to corrupt elements, particularly when the prospects of corrupt practices of repriming professionals of probity and hoisting flaccid complaisant to prominence are certain to be in excelsis in the new age. REMOVAL OF CONSTABULARY The constabulary that forms the backbone and the cutting-edge of Indian policing and wields real authority over the populace is a lowly paid, modestly educated, non-elite mass of uniformed workers. The authority they wield makes them fearsome while their low status in society sperres them from commanding empathy, respect and legitimacy. The fearsome authority sans empathy, respect and legitimacy decidedly proves a deadly substructure for an organisation and people certainly resent an organisation with this unhealthy attribute. Nor the truculent authority, invested in officials of an intra-mural enlightenment and responsibility can ensure its comme il faut exercise. This foible in the extant setup manifests as increased hazards to glib policing as the complexity of its challenges thickens in coming years, if no remedial measures are undertaken belive. The Indian police of the 21st century will require Sub-Inspectors with their present scale of education and status in society as the primary unit of policing at the cutting-edge level with no policing powers and responsibilities devolved beneath this level. The constabulary up to the level of the Assistant SubInspectors of Police should be limited to the duties of menial assistants without police powers and responsibilities. This will require a huge army of SubInspectors in the Indian police while the constabulary stands to be severely spruced in strength. With the removal of the constabulary from the police hierarchy, the SubInspectors will besort to the lowest rank in the police setup. Each police station works under a Police Inspector assisted by a host of Sub-Inspectors, performing all subordinate functions of the policing including beat patrolling and investigation of minor cases under this dispensation. PROFESSIONAL TRAINING FACILITIES The chief cause of policing never being a profession in India is the ineffectiveness of its training facilities. In spite of adequate infrastructures available for training police officials of various ranks, these centers largely fail to 250

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meet the quality required to make a recruit a thorough professional. An overhaul of the extant training facilities in terms of its quality, content and character is inevitable to keep the Indian police excubant to future challenges. The training facilities should be made centers of scholarship and research on police subjects with professionals of national reputation in each subject handling their respective subjects. The psychology faculty of the centre should endeavor to build character and infuse right orientation among the recruits. The faculty members of the training centers should be exceptionally well paid so as to inveigle the best in the field to join. Army officers must handle outdoor classes. This model helps in instilling the highest standards and expectations in trainees till they become fullfledged officers and orient them to become professional police officers, apart from distancing them from the moderate influences that are herded to handle police training centers in the present setup. The trainees must be exposed to police officers as guest speakers, by inviting very senior police officers of the highest integrity and job standards to deliver talks on specific topics. Separate professional training courses should be available in the training centers for law and order police, crime police, intelligence police and security police with scope for advanced learning with an eye to the latest developments in each respective field. Latest training methods should be adopted with management, computers and advanced psychology inter alia as the common subjects of study for all the courses. The training centers should give the impression of being temples of advanced studies apart from being so. PROFESSIONALISM IN POLICING Policing requires commitment and dedication on the part of its operators. The principles of faith and responsibility must run invisus through the vitals of the policing, should it be purposeful and successful. The extant bureaucratic malady that infested the Indian police setup cohibits healthy policing practices. The police organisation should be reoriented to develop a professional approach to its operations with full faith and responsibility as the hallmark of the delegation of power. The present emphasis on procedures should be shifted to commitment and result-orientation within the ambit of the rules. An analytical study of policing, its trends and modem techniques helps to bring professionalism in policing. Due encouragement for the study of theoretical aspects of policing and its application in the field through in-service training will be a welcome step in this direction. If police managers succeed in inspiring in police officers an interest in theoretical aspects of the policing and its latest techniques, it would be a kenspeckle leap in awakening Indian police to the challenges in the future. 251

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GENTLEMANLY IMAGE Though efforts have been en train to ameliorate the image of the Indian police for a long time, nothing substantial could be achieved for amateurish handling of the affair. The present Indian police managers have their image development tools limited to issuing occasional press statements when image development has become a highly advanced field of specialization with unending scope for further advancements. In view of the considerable significance of the image for successful police operations, the wherewithal of image building in police organisation is required to be updated with latest techniques with the help of professionals in the field. CHANGE OF UNIFORM A change in the existing police uniform is an issue to be deeply probed into to improve the police image. The present khaki uniform of police inspires resentment, as it is psychologically associated with repression and violence. A change of police uniform to full white or pleasant colours may prove to be a measure for the better in removing the negative image of the police. The overall strategy in selecting a new police uniform should be to infuse a sense of oneness and quality among the ranks of police and inspiring a psychological disposition of friendliness, confidence, respect and healthy fear in the public with a compulsion to see the police as their own people, but invested with the responsibility of a noble task. GOOD LIVING STANDARDS The police organisation functions effectively only when a reasonably good living standard is made affordable to all ranks of officers, so that they can deal with antisocial elements from a level of strength and confidence sans the lure of easy booty, thrown en revanche to a let-off. A low living standard retards the police image and esteem in society that are the essentials of successful policing. It is more so in future while more and more of the so-called elite jump into the fray of criminal activities in an increasingly complicated society. It may be necessary to make police officers financially bien in comparison to their counterparts in other services with 30% of their pay paid as risk allowance and 20% as hazard allowance to compensate job factors. This helps to attract the best to the fold of the police organisation, apart from protecting them from financial distractions. A feeling of condign compensation is certain to boost the commitment and efficiency of the police. MODERN FACILITIES AND MANAGEMENT TOOLS The police organisation has seen mushroom growth sans application of requisite management principles. The major lapse lies in failure to define 252

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organizational objectives and formulate specific set of actions thereon. For example, extraneous objectives like creating employment opportunities often inspire creation of additional posts irrespective of the organizational needs, which results in corrosion of job contents and thereby morale of the force. Work often is not allocated on the basis of scientific assessment of the character and aptitude. The latest equipments purchased a grands frais under modernization schemes without creating the infrastructure for its operation or analyzing its relative merits to the organisation, resulted in its being dumped a few days of its operation while even basic necessities of policing are yet to be met in a few other quarters. These anomalies prove criant luxuries to a police organisation, sure to be faced with enormous challenges in the third millennium. The police organisations of India do well to be featous, well organized and formulate actions and operations in line with latest management principles and practices. K may either constitute an efficient cell of management experts to advice or hire a management consultation firm for guidance. At any rate, the police organisation of the third millennium should be a far smaller unit than now, manned by highly committed and capable officers who are paid and looked after well by the government. The present policing system in India has too much of paper work with hundreds of registers maintained in each station or office with tens of forms filled up in each stage of policing. A detailed analytical study of paper works in policing may help to considerably reduce paper works and thereby save precious official man-hours for use in actual police operations. The modernization of the police force with the latest communication, transport, weaponry and office equipment system and me simultaneous creation of the necessary infrastructure for their operation in advance alone besort the police force to the challenges of elite criminals, armed with latest equipments. India of the third millennium will require its police force to be equipped with helicopters as an aide in policing in emergencies. A genuine and effective effort to achieve modernization ends would be sine qua non for the future policing. A face-lift to police stations and offices with the latest office equipment and general facilities will go a long way in creating a psychological atmosphere for effective policing. CREATION OF CRIMINAL LAW BOARD India requires the constitution of a statutory Criminal Law Board as an advisory body to liaise between the police setup and the union law ministry regarding criminal laws to facilitate glib policing. The board, as a permanent body, may have senior most officers of the central government from home and 253

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law ministries, police and prosecution departments, distinguished humanists and senior advocates of the Superme Court as members with the union home minister as its chairman. It must undertake the study of the need of changes in criminal laws from rime to rime. The board may meet every quarter and discuss extant criminal laws and their shortcomings in the light of representations received from officers in the field from the police and prosecution departments and make proposals for requisite changes in criminal laws e re nata. WIDENED RESPONSIBILITIES IN CRIME ADMINISTRATION A few glaring anomalies and some erroneous provisions in the extant criminal laws of India contributed to the easy escapade of criminals from the clutches of law in many cases and harassment of innocent persons by the police in some other cases. The loopholes in the criminal laws have to be plugged imprimis if crime administration has to be effective in India and command a semblance of respect and confidence of the public. The police or judicial officer under whose custody a person is kept under detention should be made responsible by name for the latter’s timely release with a provision that if detention exceeds the period provided by law, it will make the concerned officer liable for proceedings for unlawful detention without the privilege of exemptions for actions performed in official colours, available under extant laws. Also, all cases of violence and physical outrages committed in police custody should be made punishable with exemplary penalties by special legislations. Such extreme measures may bring an end to shocking criminal acts committed eo nomine policing in some quarters and save the Indian police from the embarrassment of severe public resentment. Current bail provisions of the Indian criminal law constitute a source of acute embarrassment to police officers with criminals, arrested after weeks or months of stupendous efforts, let off by the judiciary on bail only to facilitate jumping the bail. All discretions about bail with police and judiciary should be taken away with only a select few offences of enormous gravity being made non-bailable wherein neither police nor judiciary can release criminals on bail. This eliminates the possibility of favours to some criminals and brings mechanical accuracy and objectivity to bail provisions. This measure may prove to be a trailblazer in ensconcing criminal laws from misuse during the difficult period ahead. POLICE COMMISSIONERS IN CITIES Every city in India with a population of more than a lakh must have an independent policing unit under a Police Commissioner of a rank befitting the population of the city; a city with a population up to ten lakhs may have one of 254

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the rank of Superintendent of police; a city with a population up to 50 lakhs may have a Deputy Inspector General of Police as the chief and a city with a population of 50 lakhs or more may have an Inspector General of Police as its Police Commissioner. The setup of Police Commissionerate gives a sense of unity and purposefulness to the task of policing, apart from being most suitable form of setup for urban policing with magisterial powers being invested with the police to enable prompt action. This setup with empight responsibilities instills commitment and dedication in policing. CREATION OF ALL INDIA POLICE AUTHORITY All maladies of the present policing emanate from the politicians who are only concerned with winning the next election. Until the police organisation is extricated from the vile prise of the mediocre politicians, it cannot hope to rise above the mediocre level of its el patron either in proficiency or in character, as such mediocrity is wont to permeate downwards in a democratic setup. In the circumstances, the police organisation with its sensitive responsibilities towards the maintenance of order and security of the country, cannot afford to submit to political vagaries. Though a proposal to extricate precious machinery like the police from the clutches of the politicians is likely to be met with enormous resistance, it is an important measure to be undertaken at all costs in the overall interests of the country. The task may be achieved by creation of an All India Police Authority, responsible only to the President of India at the national level with regional Police Boards in states as independent bodies, managing police organisations at the centre and states. A Supreme Court Judge must head the All India Police Authority with union home secretary and central cabinet secretary as members and the senior most police officer of the country as the member-secretary. The regional Police Board must have a High Court Judge at the helm with home secretary and state chief secretary as members and the state police chief as its member-secretary. The arrangement is likely to bring an end to undue interference in police affairs, thus enabling the police to function in an independent atmosphere. The Indian police may hope to turn out eximious work in the new age if these measures are implemented. Policing as a phenomenon of maintaining order and security in society cannot afford to be oblivious of the flux in the modem lifestyles. As an integral part of civil living, policing must prepare itself to amate the increasing complexities of modem life by modifying its organizational and administrative setups to the demands that these vicissitudes create. The changes warranted in policing may either be deciduous or peremptory depending on the nature of the transition in 255

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society. It is left to police planners to analyze the nature of the flux in the society and locate the areas where decession from the past practices has become sine qua non for policing. This should be an ongoing process if policing is to retain its relevance as the guardian of social discipline. The futuristic challenges of policing would be pro rata to the twists of the future living. The prospects of Indian population reaching the mark of a billion and the concomitant luctation of two billion needy hands to grab a share in the country’s limited resources of food, shelter, water, clothing, electricity, schooling, employment etc. naturally make life a cut-throat concours and a ruthless adventure devoid of scruple, human values and a concern for fellow men. Though the Indian policing system managed somehow to deal with the vicissitudes till now, the geometric acceleration of the flux of the coming years may prove to be too much to the extant police setup. Therefore, it is high time now that we prepare our police organisation and administration for the future challenges.

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