Don't wait for the magician

Don't wait for the magician: SMART policing can only happen if the neta-babu stranglehold is released

N Ramachandran





The friendly neighborhood policewoman and policeman is often seen as not so friendly ­ but corrupt, insensitive, inefficient, beyond any accountability, partisan. Of course there are also several examples of police displaying the highest standards of probity and professionalism.But in the absence of robust systems and processes, coupled with the ability of unscrupulous persons to manipulate, subvert and even criminalise the system, the good work that gets done is easily eclipsed. Only the bad cop stands out.

Ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's next meeting with the Directors-General of all state and central police organisations, it must be said that over the years this conference has remained by and large ritualistic, with very little strategising content or impact. But Modi's vision of a SMART police, articulated at the 2014 Guwahati meeting of the DGPs, raised hopes of reform.

SMART stands for a strict but sensitive, modern and mobile, alert and accountable, reliable and responsive, techno-savvy and trained body of professionals. But i wonder if the real dimensions of this vision have been fully understood by the police brass and the bureaucracy responsible for implementing this vision. I say this because the discussions at many of the meetings on SMART policing have been primarily around acquiring technologies and smart phone applications which apparently would make the police SMART.

What is missing is a discour se on how to prepare the field policewoman and policeman to undergo attitudinal transformation and skill-development.What is missing is how the police should base its core values on integrity, rule of law, respect for human rights and accountability to the citizens. Only a strict adherence to these values will address issues of violence against women, protection of Dalits and the socially excluded and disadvantaged sections.

Those in charge should realise that a strategy based purely on technology cannot make the police sensitive, valuesdriven and people-friendly . This conceptual confusion and the general `chalta hai' attitude to reform have kept us where we have always been.

Who is responsible for smartening the police? No one expects Modi to wield a magic wand to materialise a SMART police tomorrow morning. Our police officers should know that no outsider will come and reform the police. Police reform has to be conceived and driven by serving police officers themselves. Thus, the only way of realising the SMART police vision would be by making the police leadership fully empowered and responsible for its implementation.

This will mean politicians and bureaucrats giving up their stranglehold over the police.While political oversight is an integral part of democracy , there should be no interference in dayto-day police operations, postings and transfers. There should be zero tolerance for police officers abdicating their legal and constitutional responsibilities, `waiting for orders from above', as has been happening in many states.

A nationwide action plan for modernising police recruitment and training and a well thought out action plan for leveraging technology must be at the core of the transformation. Nobody can expect honest service delivery from someone who has paid a bribe to become a policeman! Reforming police recruitment therefore must be the first step. As for training, it is a sad reflection of the state of neglect that in some of the states the syllabus of police training has not been revised for several decades now.

Another necessary step in police reform is improving the abysmal working and living conditions of our subordinate police personnel. Compensation to next of kin of police personnel who make the supreme sacrifice in the line of duty and rehabilitation of their dependents also demands more attention.

The huge elephant in the room is that the prime minister's passion for change is not shared by some of those who have the responsibility to make the SMART vision a reality . The point i want to reiterate on the eve of the DGPs' conference is that transformational change in the police can happen only if the police leadership passionately feels the need for a transformation.They should realise that SMART police is a carefully envisioned project in statecraft and not an empty slogan in stagecraft.

The writer is a retired IPS officer and president of the Indian Police Foundation. Views are personal.

Courtesy: Times of India

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