Police Reforms an Urgent Imperative





The ghastly murder of a dentist in Delhi by a mob last week underscores the need for urgent police reforms, including increasing staff strength, modernising its methods, improving its pay and transforming its orientation. Policing must be preemptive, responsive and prompt. The police force must be seen as an integral part of the community and not an external imposition that is aligned to the local political heavyweights.This requires increasing the number of policemen on the beat, who should be well versed with the community , and whom the community will trust to act with fairness.India's police force is woefully understaffed with one policeman for 732 persons; the ratio goes up to one policeman for 1,298 and 1,282 persons in Bihar and Uttar Pradesh, respectively . This is against the United Nations-recommended ratio of one policeman for 450 persons. Simulta neously , the police must be protected from undue influence and pressure from governments and politicians in the dis charge of their duties. Measures such as the separation of the investigation and law and order functions, as recommended by the Supreme Court's 2006 judgment, will help improve police efficiencies. Much of what it takes to bring accountability , equity and transparency to the Indian police system, governed by the Police Act of 1861, already exists in the form of assorted commission recommendations and the Supreme Court's 2006 judgment.
As the government works reforming the Code of Criminal Procedure to shift to a system of restorative justice, it must simultaneously ensure that the police force is both equipped and capable of making the transition. Without the requisite police reforms, this will be another incomplete effort to put in place a responsive and modern criminal justice system.
Source: Economic Times, 30-3-2016