Working towards police reforms

Working towards police reforms

Three-day colloquium by Bureau of Police Research throws up new ideas
‘Seven States follow directions by Supreme Court to implement police reforms, while ten do not comply’
‘Media and NGOs must be mobilised towards police reforms’



A three-day colloquium organised by the Bureau of Police Research and Development (BPRD) has ended here. Concluding with several suggestions for the improvement of police force in the country, the sessions dealt with various issues of policing, including reforms and police authors. Beginning with a comparison between the Indian police and their counterparts in the West, the colloquium dealt with other subjects like the police vision, the challenges before the police in the 21st Century, encouraging police authors and taking the process of police reforms ahead.
National Security Adviser M. K. Narayanan said the role of BPRD is more important than ever before in shaping the Indian police and it should take the lead in making the force more professional.
Since the BPRD handles police missions and provides inputs for policy making, the Union Ministry of Home Affairs should take care of the staff shortage and lack of adequate finances, said Mr. Narayanan.
Speaking on the concluding day, former Border Security Force (BSF) Director-General Prakash Singh said the 1984 anti-Sikh riots, the Ayodhya incident of 1992 and the Gujarat riots of 2002 forced him to file a public interest litigation in the Supreme Court seeking directions to the States to implement police reforms.
The Supreme Court directed the States to set up a State Security Commission, establish a Police Establishment Board and Accountability Authority at the State and district levels.
Also, it asked the States to fix the procedure for posting of the Directors-General of Police and also fixing their tenure, besides asking for separating investigations from law and order functions.
Mr. Singh said seven States have complied with the directives and ten have drafted laws to circumvent the implementation of the Supreme Court directives. Bihar, Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu are among the non-compliant States, he added.
The former BSF Director-General said public opinion, the media and the non-government organisations have to be mobilised towards police reforms.
“The political opposition to the reforms will have to be neutralised and corrupt, politicised officers will have to be marginalised,” he added.
Earlier, the experts concluded that Indian policing needed to do a lot to match its Western counterparts as latter were not only better equipped technically but also had a more efficient, decentralised structure.
They said the police should work towards partnership with other agencies to become instruments that could be helpful in ensuring social, political and economic justice to the common man.
Speaking about the importance of police leadership, BPRD Director-General Kiran Bedi said the police leadership should not only show the way to their subordinates but also help pave the path ahead.
It was decided during the colloquium that a study by a four-member team be conducted on ‘State of affairs of police families’ and it would be presented at the next colloquium.
On the last day of the colloquium, Ms. Bedi launched the Hindi website of the BPRD. Four police authors were honoured with the G. B. Pant Award.