MONTHLY FEATURE uu POLICE AND SECURITY uu SEPTEMBER, 1998

FIFTY YEARS OF INDIAN POLICE SERVICE

Dr.S.Subramanian, IPS (Retd.)

On September 15, 1998, the Indian Police Service (IPS) will be celebrating its Golden Jubilee along with its alma mater, the National Police Academy. It is an important landmark and an historic occasion for the Service. It is also an occasion for self introspection and evaluation. Has the I.P.S. lived up to the expectations of the People and the Police rank and file, is the question to be answered. An ideal leader guides, precedes and directs his followers to achieve the organisational goals. How far I.P.S.officers have been successful in this? Today, to say the least, the police image is not bright. Even after 50 years of Independence, the Police have not become people friendly. There are plethora of complaints. Apparently ,the I.P.S. officers have not been able to make the Police ,people friendly. The Service should look at the future with an open mind and initiate necessary steps to make the Police to achieve glory and public adulation.

Policing in the last fifty years has undergone a sea Change. In the pre independence era and in the first two decades of Free India, Policing consisted of traditional tasks of Prevention and detection of Crime and maintenance of order. The superior police officer(IP and IPS) was required to be a generalist administrator running the department efficiently and supervising the performance of duties of the subordinates. The rulers were respectors of the Rule of Law and very rarely interfered with the Police administration except were their personal interests were involved. Police leaders were able to innovate and galvanise the force to take active part in ‘Liberation of Hyderabad’, ‘Liberation of Goa’, ‘Armed Struggle of Telengana’, ‘Insurgency in the Northeast’ etc. Everyone followed the rules of the game .Monolithic ruling party provided an aura of continuity and stability. The Police leader could afford to leave the nitty gritty of policing to his subordinates. Since the Police Organisation in India is ‘Thana Based’ , this helped the Police to perform quite satisfactorily. While the public often accused Police of Corruption and inefficiency, rarely their impartiality and devotion to duty came to be questioned.

In the late sixties, when the monopoly power of the ruling elite was threatened, all the established organs of State were subverted to subserve the cause of the ruling elite to bring them back their hegemony. Police was no exception. Police leadership lost an historic opportunity to uphold the principles of Rule of Law and hold the service to people above service to the ruling elite. Compliance to the wishes of the ruling elite slowly degenerated into active collusion against the people. Thus, police lost their credibility in Independent India.

Simultaneously, Crime had become more complex and maintenance of order metamorphosed into ‘Proxy War’. It is to the credit of IPS officers, that they converted lathi wielding civil police into an efficient fighting force to meet the challenges to internal security, integrity and sovereignty of the Nation. Thousands of Policemen, including many IPS officers laid down their lives to safeguard the people. In all theaters , be it Punjab, Northeast, J&K, Assam, A.P., the Police excelled and got the better of the disruptive elements. In this task ,they became victims of accusations of Human Rights violations.

Emerging trends in crime-White Collar, Organised, Computer, Terrorist Violence, Drugs related-call upon the IPS officer to be an accomplished investigator. Threats to internal security demands that an IPS officer lead his men into the battlefield; lay and break ambushes; storm terrorist hideouts; detect and defuse explosives; rescue hostages; deal with highjackings etc. From a generalist, the IPS officer has become a super specialist in the management of internal security. From all available trends, Crime is going to increase in quality and quantity and internal security situation is not going to be any better in the foreseeable future. If we expect the Police in India, to deal with these effectively, we should take steps to improve the quality of police leadership. The professional knowledge and skills of the IPS officer has to improve and to make police people friendly, the IPS officer should have a proper attitude towards the people. He should posses an ethos of Enablement instead of Enforcement. It is worthwhile to concentrate our attention to the recruitment, training and service conditions of IPS officers to have a multiplier effect on the police rank and file.

The vast array of professional knowledge and skills required by an IPS officer, requires lot of time to impart. It is suggested that youth in the age group of 17-19 after the 12th standard be recruited through a competitive exam conducted by the UPSC and put through a three year course of Training in the National Police Academy. At the end of three years, those who are successful could be awarded the Degree of Bachelor of Police Sciences. It should be possible that within three years we could give them both theoretical and practical training in all fields of Police activity. Three years of continued exposure to ethical principles of Police work would enable them to practice ethical and lawful policing and be role models to the subordinate officers. We are aware that this suggestion will be unpalatable to many, because of the fear that any change in the recruitment and training parameters is likely to affect the standing of IPS vis-a-vis IAS. It is time that the IPS became a specialised service and demanded better emoluments and perks on merits and not on comparison with a generalist service.

The service conditions of IPS officers deserve improvement. In the garb of primacy of civil services, they are getting a raw deal and an artificial chasm is being created between IAS and IPS. As the peace keepers of the Nation, they deserve a better deal, at least on par with the IAS.

Quality of life in a Liberal Democracy is to a great extent is determined by the quality of police service it has. Police service is an art dedicated to the service of the people. They are the only agency available round the clock to help the citizen in distress. The Country can not afford to ignore the Police . To improve the quality of police service, one of the primary factors is to improve the quality of police leadership though a professional and ethical IPS. We appeal to all those in authority to ponder over these facts and make IPS an efficient and effective organ of public service.

We wish the Indian Police Service a glorious future and look forward to see, under its leadership, a refurbished and people friendly Police in the near future.

(The author is a former Director General of CRPF and NSG)

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