Any worthwhile reform in the police administration should, in the first place, take into account the public expectations of the Police. What do the people expect from their police ? To protect their lives and property. In other words, they expect the Police to maintain order and security, prevent and detect crimes. Public are least police is organised, administered, financed, trained and deployed. It does not give consolation to the victim of a crime, to be told that the crime ‘curve’ is on the decline or the latest methods of investigation will be deployed in solving crime, nor is he concerned about the official crime statistics. he is expected to ask why the crime was not prevented by the police in the first place? Similarly, when going about their normal avocations, citizens expect to enjoy all the freedoms guaranteed under the Constitution and expect the Police to ensure this. The citizen has neither the patience nor the need to know the intricacies of law. He only expects his police to assure him protection of life and property.

To live up to these expectations and to perform their basic task of maintenance of order and security and prevention and detection of crime, Police should have foreknowledge of the problems likely to occur in these areas. This omniscience is possible only if Police move about in society and keep close contact with the people. This requires the presence of police in the field extensively. This omnipresence is ensured by patrols, beats etc. by the police. People are aware of the limitations of the police in solving crime and tackling order and security problems. They do not credit police with the capacity to deal with all situations. In other words, they do not expect omnipotence from the police.

Revival of Patrol, Beat Services:

The basic police reform should aim at ensuing omnipresence of police in the society. Police presence should be ‘visible’ to the public. To the law-abiding citizens such presence will be reassuring and to the criminals it will have a deterrent effect. It is a sad fact that patrolling and beat service have ceased to exist in many parts of the country particularly in rural areas. Even in urban areas, police is seen only during important occasions and VIP visits. On normal than on traffic duties. Thus, the basic reform should airm at reviving the service of beats and patrols on a regular basis by the police both in the rural and urban areas. The Police Department should be directed to give its first priority to this aspect.

One often hears from Police administrators the refrain that they are short of man-power. A glance at the statistics will show that this is not always true. What is lacking is the scientific utilisation of manpower. Trained personnel are wasted on fetch and carry jobs, messenger duties and the like. Much of the ‘armed police’ stregth is wasted on non-essential duties and the citizen is deprived of police services. It is suggested that the ratio of armed police to civil police should never exceed 1:10 i.e. armed police should form only ten per cent of the total police force in a district and 90% should consist of civil police personnel available for public service. Duties like ‘Express Tappal Duty’, Summons Service, Fetch and Carry Duties, should be removed from Police. Where necessary, this should be performed by civilian employees of the Police Department. There is nothing more rediculous than to waste a trained policeman to take personally and deliver an ‘Express Tappal’ to superior officers or Court. Postal services, wireless etc. should be used. Normally all summonses should be sent by post. Only warrants should be served by trained police personnel.

Police Constables are the visible representatives of the Police administration. The image of police would depend upon their proper understanding of their role, duties and responsibilities and the way in which they enforce law. Thus the quality of the constabulary is of paramount importance to the Police organisation as well as citizens. Therefore, minimum educational qualification for the recruitment of Police constable should be Matriculation or S.S.L.C. Age at entry should be 18-21. The candidates should take a State level centrally administered written test. Only candidates getting over 50% in the written test should be called for interview. At the interview, in addition to assessing the physical traits, efforts should be made to assess the mental traits. It would be advantageous to associate a psychiatrist in the interview board.

Those possessing a Degree, after undergoing the normal written test and inteview prescribed for all candidates, should be, when appointed as constables, given five advance increments of pay. In this way, we will be able to attract many Graduates to the constabulary.

The recommendations of the Committee on Police Training (Gore Committee) are to be fully adopted in the training of constabulary. On the model of Tamil Nadu facilities for frequent ‘In-service’ training should be created.

Ratio between the posts of Constables, Head Constables and Assistant Sub-Inspectors should be 6 : 3 : 1 to enable vertical mobility in the constabulary and to reduce stagnation. Many short courses are to be organised for the constabulary in the Police training schools/ colleges and preference/weightage should be given at the time of promotions to the candidates who have successfully undergone these courses. All promotions should be based on the results of written examinations centrally organised and administered and after interview to test the professional ability.

For purposes of performance of duties, upto the level Assistant Sub-Inspectors, all should be treated as one category for serving beats and patrols.

The present antiquated Village Police set up of Village Munsiff, Talayari and Police Patel etc. being entrusted with basic policefunctions require a thorough overhaul. We need someone in each village to perform the basic functions of preventing and reporting crimes. This can not be and need not be performed by a full time trained police officer from outside the village. We need some one who is the resident of the village. The village police officer should be selected carefully from among the villagers, given certain basic training regarding his duties and responsibilities under law and paid a decent and adeqaute pay. He should be kept under the direct administrative control of the Police Department. His appointment should be for a term of three years renewable only on the basis of record of his service to the people. Wherever available, ex-servicemen/ex-policemen are to be given preference for the job of village police officer.

Police Stations an be generally divided into three categories:

1. Urban Police Stations - those situated in City, District Headquarters, Industrial Centres.
2. Semi-Urban Police Stations - those situated in Taluk Hqrs. and Town.
3. Rural Police Stations - those situated in interior rural areas away from urban areas. These are meant primarily for crime prevention and peace maintenance roles.

This category of Police Stations usually cover an area of 40/45 villages. Incidence of crime is low and law & order problems do not exist other than annual festivals or Jatras in some villages. Total IPC crime including property offences is normally less than 100 per year and petty case and security work are also light. Generally, communications are poor and the staff are put to considerable difficulty to find accommodation facilities for education, medicare etc.

Main Police work in these interior police stations consists of crime prevention work viz., check on known bad characters, ex-convics checking, village visiting etc. These police stations are normally staffed with I.S.I., 1 H.C., and 10 P.Cs. and Sweeper. In practice, there is always a shortage of upto 50% of the sanctioned strength as men are reluctant to join these station and even when they join, they frequently report sick and adopt malingering tactics. Of this meagre strength, three Constables are utilised for Station Guard duty, one for Station writer work and one by the S.I. as his general assistant for investigation duty etc., leaving little or no staff for serving of beats, check on bad characters, village visiting etc. Thus no worthwhile policing or preventive work is done. In view of the large area to be covered and difficult itineration, the S.I. is unable to take up prompt investigation of even the few IPC cases reported. It is reasonable to presume, in view of poor communication facilities and in the absence of intense village visiting by the Police, many crimes go unreported in these areas and only cases of serious nature come to the notice of the police.

It is, therefore, necessary to devise some method by which intense village visiting and crime prevention work as well as prompt investigation of the few cases that are reported are ensured. This is not possible with the existing staff, as the entire burden devolves on one S.I. and the H.C. It is, therefore, proposed to restaff these Police Stations with 1 S.I., 1 ASI, 4 H.Cs. and three contingent paid-staff. S.I. will be the Station House Officer responsible for general administration and investigation of important IPC cases. The A.S.I. will be the record keeper of the Station and attend to the duties of Station Writer as well as to the maintenance of all records, which are required to be maintained by the S.I. He will be always present in the Police Station during working hours. H.Cs. will be sanctioned at the rate of one for ten villages. Groups of ten villages will be earmarked to each H.C. and he will be held responsible for visiting these villages, take all preventive measures like K.D. checking, ex-convict checking etc. In addition, the H.C. will directly investigate into the specified categories of minor cases like 174 Cr.P.C., 324 IPC, minor thefts etc. The H.Cs. will be rotated once a year to ensure that no vested interests develop. The H.Cs. will be answerable for all developments in the ten villages allotted to them and it is their responsibility to bring to the notice of the S.I. and other higher-ups any untoward development in their area. Weapons in these Police Stations will be withdrawn. Each of these Police Stations will be supplied with two steel almirahs, one big and one small, for the safe custody of documents. Of the three contingent paid-employees, one would always be available in the Police Station to attend to ‘fetch and carry’ errands roud the clock. If any prisoner is to be taken to the court etc., a special escort party of two H.Cs. will be formed. As such instances are likely to be few and far between, they will not affect the general working pattern of the Police Station. The H.Cs. will also do all miscellaneous duties like process services etc., pertaining to their jurisdiction. If any sudden outbreak of law & order problem takes place, additional forces would be provided from Sub-Divisional Head-quarters by the S.D.P.O.

As H.Cs. are being responsible for policing a group of ten villages, work on the preventive side will improve. As there will be more frequent village visiting than at present, public will feel the presence of Police. Since the same officer will be in-charge for an year, it will be easy for him to develop rapport with the villagers.

As cases of minor nature are to be investigated by H.Cs., quick and prompt investigation is ensured. Since each H.C. is responsible for his jurisdiction only, it will give him enthusiasm to turn out better work and it will also be easy for the the supervisory officers to assess the work of each H.C. qualitatively and quatitatively.

As minimum level of the staff in the Police Station is being raised to that of an H.C., there will be overall improvement in the quality of Police work turned out by the Police Station.

These Police Stations are to be manned by officers of the rank of Inspectors of Police. Under him, personnel should be divided into two wings: (a) Order and Security and Traffic Wing, (b) Crime Investigation and Court Work Wing.

(a) above would consist of the ranks of S.I., A.S.I., HC and Constables and would be responsible for maintenance of order and security in the town as well as traffic enforcement. This wing would serve the beats and patrols and be responsible for crime prevention work. Armed Guards for Treasuries, Sub Jails etc. would be provided from this Wing.

(b) would consist of the ranks of S.I., A.S.I. and H.Cs. only. There would be no constables in this Wing. This Wing would exclusively concentrate on investigation work and court work.

These Police Stations would be on the model of existing City Police Stations with complete division of work into law and order, crime and traffic wings.

It is necessary to insist on pre-entry preparatory education for police personnel and recruitment should be from those who have had formal education in police administration and N.C.C. training. Pending implementation of this suggestion, different categories of personnel should be recruited and given assignments as indicated below:

They are pivotal to the functioning of police department as primary investigators of crime, in police, in charge of police stations and operational level leaders of the police force. It is necessary to induct fresh blood at this level. Direct recruitment should be restricted to candidates of the age group 21-25 possessing post-graduate degrees and N.C.C. ‘C’ certificate. The emphasis on NCC ‘C’ Certificate is to reduce the time spent on imparting training in Outdoor subjects in the Police Training Institutions. They should be put through the syllabus prescribed by the Gore Committee. After their initial P.T.C. and field training, after an evaluation of their performance and attitude, candidates should be allotted to Armed Police, Order and Security Wing, Traffic Wing, Crime Investigation Wing etc. They should be given specialised training in respect of the Wings to which they are attached.

Director recruitment of Sub-Inspectors should be restricted to 40% of the authorised strength. This would ensure that constabulary has the opportunity of reaching 60% of these posts.

Posts of Circle Inspectors are to be abolished. Inspectors are to be in charge of Semi-Urban & Urban Police Stations only. Posts of Sub-Inspectors in the State Special, Crime, Computer Branches to be abolished and instead the minimum ‘Operational level’ of posts in these specialised units should be Inspectors. This would ensure that Sub-Inspectors get better opportunity for promotion.

For supervisory purposes, eight rural police stations are to be placed in charge of a Deputy Superintendent of Police and should form a Sub-Division. The Sub-Divisional Officer should have at least 24 Armed Policemen with required transport under him in his headquarters to meet emergent law and order situations.

In the Semi-Urban and Urban areas, Sub-Divisions will have lesser number of Police Stations depending on the workload.

For better and efficient service to people, district police administration to be recast as in the Chart appended at Appendix-I.

District Armed Reserve should be abolished. District Armed Reserves have become seed-beds of indiscipline, inefficiency and attendant ills due to the fact that the District Superintendent of Police is no longer in a position to supervise them closely due to pressure of work. Existing D.A.Rs. should be abolished and the personnel absorbed in Civil Police and this additional strength used to augment the police personnel available for basic police tasks.

To meet emergent law and order situations, one Armed Police Bn. should be earmarked for a Range to work under the operational control of the D.I.G. of the Range. The D.I.G. should be free to order their movements to meet emergent law and order problems and he should obtain the post-facto approval of the Inspector General of Police, Law & Order, for such movements. Inspector general of Police, Law & Order, should scrutinise these very carefully to ensure that Armed Police is not ‘called-up’ on flimsy grounds and deployed unnecessarily.

Three Police Districts would form a Range and will be placed under the charge of a Deputy Inspector General of Police. Each Range will have an armed police battalion. Organisation Chart is at Appendix-II.

The entire police set up in a State will be under the command and control of a Director General of Police. He will be assisted by Staff Officers of the rank of Inspectors General of Police, Additional Inspector-General of Police/Dy.Inspector General of Police. An organisational chart is placed at Appendix-III.

This unit should enquire into all serious complaints against police officers throughout the State and should be headed by the senior-most officer next to Director General of Police, who should have all the powers of an enquiry commision. By its impartial and just functioning, it would, in the long run, build up an image for itself. Officers posted in this unit should have a clear image and exceptionally good record of service, integrity and impartiality.