Inculcating Democratic Policing in India: A Psychological Perspective

Abstract

Police is a vital oigan of public administration for they are entitled to secure safety, security and dignity of citizens of country. Police is entrusted to safeguard lives and properties of aggrieved. Police is first step in ladder of criminal justice system who are responsible for upholding human rights of each and every citizen. Hence, effective policing is imperative for implementation of law and order and in building up of an institution ofjustice.Police administration in India cannot be dubbed as a success story. Even after 64 years of independence, archaic Police Act of 1861 or acts modelled after it continue to govern policing in India. Police is still used as a coercive arm of state utilising force to impose law rather than providing a service to uphold law. It is a shame for world's largest democracy that instances of police inaction and passiveness have become order of day. Political blindness and biased attitude on part of police have led to a police culture characterised by abuses, a dysfunctional and corrupt service, and a force that is almost entirely divorced from communities it is tasked with protecting.It is an undigestible fact that police personnel themselves become law breakers. To quote a recent instance, Honourable Supreme Court of India in a case where it upheld life sentence of policemen said, Tolerance of police atrocities would surmount to acceptance of systemic subversion and erosion of rule of law. Police atrocities are always violative of constitutional mandate, particularly Article 21 (protection of life and personal liberty) and Article 22 (person arrested must be informed grounds of detention and produced before Magistrate within 24 hours).Police atrocities in India have always been a subject matter of controversy and debate. In view of provisions of Article 21 of constitution, any form of torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment is inhibited. Whether it occurs during investigation, interrogation or otherwise wrongdoer is accountable and state is responsible if a person in custody of police is deprived of his life except in accordance with procedure established by law. The state must ensure prohibition of torture, cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment to any person, particularly at hands of any state agency/police force.(The Hindu, November 6,2011)Police reforms in India: An unfinished businessVarious surveys conducted by some independent organisations found that public don't consider police as a friendly sign of state. Criticism of police by executive and legislature is very common. The judiciary is very much sensitive to complaints of human rights violations by police. To quote David Bayley, the survey results demonstrate forcefully what many close observers of police-public relations in India have long thought namely that Indian public is deeply suspicious of activities of their policeA considerable proportion of police personnel are rude, brutal, corrupt and in collusion with criminals and very frequently dealing unevenly with their clients. (The Police and Political Development in India, p238). This Opinion is supported by National Police Commission Report that commission expressed its anxiety over poor state of police public relations (Vol.l5,p.48). The main reason that police couldn't reach acme of their skills in upholding law is lack of right manpower for right job coupled with lack of insight of top-notch policy-makers in human factors in policing The focus should be to recruit personnel with maximum strength who would fit in policing, identify problems of police and take measures to address it, devise strategies to help them go beyond given by offering training programmes to achieve ultimate goal in policing:- curing criminals and not treating criminals in inhuman ways which doesn't fit with world's largest democracy that produced many doyens of nonviolence like Lord Buddha and Mahatma Gandhi. …