In a Democracy, quality of life is determined by the quality of Police Service it has. If the Police of a country go about their tasks ethically and lawfully, the Citizens fully enjoy their Freedoms and Human Rights. Police are the gatekeepers and initiators of the mighty Criminal Justice System and on their initiative depends the level of satisfaction of the Citizen in getting his problems solved by the State.

Police organisation, in its present form has been in existence in India for 140 years. It was raised to prop up an alien power and its ethos had been to use force to subjugate people to accept the Foreign Power. Its credo had been enforcement at all costs and there was no place for democratic principles in its operations. Even after Independence, due to many reasons, no effort has been made to redefine the Mission of Police. Policemen work round the clock throughout the year under the most exacting conditions. Thousands of them have given their lives battling the politically violent elements to ensure the integrity and sovereignty of this Nation. Whenever caste and communal frenzy took hold of the populace , the police acted neutrally and impartially and shone as islands of sanity in the ocean of bigotry.. Yet, why people dislike Police? The reason is not what the police do but how they do their work. Knowingly or unknowingly police disregard the dignity inherent in an individual in their work and this creates a cleavage between them and the people. In a democracy, people come always first and there can no excuse for slighting them.

The word Democracy is derived from two words-Demos-the People and –cracy-the Rule of, signifying the Rule of the People. It is characterised by the representative nature of its government elected in a popular, free election with universal suffrage and answerable to the people through the elected representatives. Its efforts are dedicated towards the welfare and common good of the people.

Democracy stands on the twin principles of ‘Rule of Law’ and ‘Equal treatment and Application of Law' to all citizens. Citizens are assured of their Fundamental and Basic Rights such as those enumerated in Part III of the Constitution of India like Right to Equality, Right to Freedoms of Personal Liberty, Speech, Assembly etc; Right against Exploitation; and Right to Freedom of Religion, Culture and Education.

To ensure that the citizens conformed to the accepted norms and codes of the Society, it became necessary for all Societies to evolve a Police organisation to oversee the conduct of the Citizens. In the initial stages, the people themselves performed this function and as the Societies became more complex, it became necessary to have a paid organisation for this purpose. People delegated their responsibility to the Police organisation.

Formally and officially, the law and administrative mandates determine the role and functions of the Police. In common parlance, these are Prevention and Detection of Crime and Maintenance of Public Order. But the people perceive police role as an all pervasive one. As the most visible organisation of the State and available and accessible to the people round the clock, police are entrusted with tasks which do not form part of the law enforcement duties. To perform many of these, Police utilise those powers granted to them by Law as crime fighters and order enforcers. In a democracy, the charter of police had expanded incredibly. They are now required to regulate the activities of the people under a plethora of legislations, which have no criminal element. While democracy stresses emphasis on Freedoms, policing places of restraints on these freedoms as an operational necessity, albeit for common good. This places police in a perpetual adversarial role vis-a-vis the public. Often police are required to enforce unpopular legislation. Their zealous enforcement becomes a matter for ridicule when the same legislation is later withdrawn under public pressure.

Policing is indeed a noble profession giving enormous scope to do good to the citizens. Policing has been compared with the Medical Profession. People seek help from both only when they are in distress. Both are expected to be on call all the time and to perform miracles in solving the problem. People are never willing to accept the fact that many of these problems are beyond the competence of either. People expect both to possess the qualities of sympathy, empathy, civility, compassion and humanity. Both are expected to possess and display the highest standards of personal morality and ethics and professional competence and conduct. In people’s perception, a Police Station and Hospital should give instant relief to their problems.

As crime fighters, Police are to follow the principles laid down in the substantive and procedural laws. They are required to keep the basic principles of Presumption of innocence, Protection against ex-post-facto operation of Criminal Law and Double jeopardy in mind and finally follow the due process in all their activities. They should always ensure that the Citizen enjoys the Right of Freedom from unwanted arrests; Right to reasonable investigation, interrogation, search and seizure; Right to legal Defence; and speedy and quick judicial trial.

In the area of maintenance of order, they are to ensure that their actions do not impinge on the basic rights of Freedoms of peaceful assembly; of religion; of opinion and expression. While Police have powers to regulate these Freedoms to ensure that exercise of these by the people do not interfere with the rights of others. However, they can not deny these to the citizens. Similarly, the Police have a right to use force to regulate and disperse assemblies but this right will have to be exercised under the stipulations made by the law. All steps taken to maintain order are to be within the four corners of law. Hence the phrase, Law and Order. The terms reasonableness and minimum force have not been defined anywhere. These depend on the facts of each case. The thumb rule is that these are to be used rationally, impartially and without bias or prejudice.

In tune with the directive principles of the Constitution and International Human Rights Instruments, large number of Social Legislation has been enacted and the police have been entrusted with the implementation of them. This has given the mantle of social worker to the Policemen. In a democracy, policing is becoming essentially Social work-protection of the weak and enabling them to enjoy basic freedoms. Crime Fighting and Order maintenance are taking back seats. To a citizen, the latter are becoming impersonal.

To be successful in a democracy, policemen need the support of the people. No amount of weaponry and legal powers would enable them to achieve success with out the cooperation of the people. To earn their respect, policemen should become acceptable to them. Policemen are not disliked by the people for what they do but how they do their job. Policemen should remember and preserve the dignity of the individual citizen while carrying out their duties. They should know the difference between firmness and rudeness. People appreciate firmness but detest rudeness. Much of the brash behavior of Policemen towards the public is due to historical reasons and colonial past. They operate under archaic rules and in an environment, which gives scant respect to democratic principles.

The challenge before the Police leadership is to how to make the present police organisation to accept democratic values and principles and become a genuine service organisation.

In the first place, police leadership should change the ethos of organisation from Enforcement to Enablement. Once the mind set of the organisation changes to positive thinking and development on democratic lines would automatically follow. For example, while dealing with an assembly of people, if an officer looks at it from the point of view of his options to declare it unlawful and use the force for dispersal, his appreciation of the situation will be militaristic. Whereas, if he views the same from the point of basic right of the citizen to assemble and express his views, he will be able to devise ways and means to permit the assembly without infringing the rights of other citizens. Similarly, when dealing with enforcement of social legislation, if he looks at it as an opportunity for enabling the disadvantaged to enjoy their rights, he would be able to help them positively. Mere prosecution of the errant would not enable the disadvantaged to enjoy their rights. On the contrary, it will have the effect of exacerbating social tensions.

In the second place, the leadership should emphasis on the police the need to adopt correct and legal means to achieve their objectives. Emphasis should be on Ethical and Lawful Policing. Much of the distrust people have against police is due to their belief that the police use unethical and illegal methods. This impression can be removed only through conscious efforts at transparency of operations.

Thirdly, often faced with the pressure to achieve, police violate human rights in internal security situations. Though it is said that this is being done for the good of the people, it has been observed that when these came to light in the past, people seldom came to the support of the police, clearly demonstrating that they value human rights and dignity of the people more than mere achievement order. It is possible to tackle the most vexatious internal security problem without violating the dignity and human rights of the common man. Respect for human being should become the credo of the police.

Police is a hierarchical organisation, which responds to the role model provided by the leadership. Demonstrable internal democracy with in the organisation and respect for the dignity of the rank and file and integrity of thought, deed and action by the police leadership will go a long way in ensuring that police organisation adopts democratic norms. People can not be won over by gimmicks and publicity blitz. There should be a genuine change of heart among the police to bring them closer to the people. For long, police leaders have adopted the three ‘E’s to run their organisation viz., Effectiveness, Efficiency and Economy. It is time to add one more ‘E’ - 'Endear yourself to People'.

In the new millennium Police Leadership should endeavour to make the Police organisation to:

• Contribute through positive action enjoyment of liberty, equality and fraternity by the people;
• Uphold the Rule of Law and eschew illegality;
• Adopt Ethical and Lawful Policing as Motto;
• Change the Ethos of the organisation from Enforcement to Enablement;
• Provide peaceable and crime free environment for people to develop;
• Give a helping hand to all those in distress;
• Assist the under privileged to realise their due place in Society; and
• Help children and youth to have and develop faith in the Democratic process and universality of Brotherhood of mankind.

Modernisation of Police of Organisation does not only mean upgrading the hardware and equipment. It also includes modernising the thinking and operational ethos of the ordinary constable and willing acceptance of ethical and democratic principles by the police personnel in their everyday work. Leadership can play a vital role in making this transformation.