Survey on Police | 28 Aug 2019

Recently, a survey conducted by Common Cause and Lokniti – Centre for the Study of Developing Societies (CSDS), has found police personnel to be under stress due to workload, poor work-life balance, and deficiency of resources.

Highlights of the Survey

• More than one-third of police personnel would be willing to give up their profession if they were given a chance to join another job with the same salaries and perks.
• Three in four personnel said the workload made it difficult for them to do their job well and was affecting their physical and mental health.
  
  • An average police officer works for 14 hours a day, while the Model Police Act recommends an 8-hour duty.
  • Every second police personnel reported not getting any weekly off day.
• Other than poor work-life balance, the police personnel also have to work with limited resources at their disposal.
  
  • Some police stations lack basic facilities such as drinking water, clean toilets, transport, staff and funds for routine purchases.
  • The police personnel also reported the absence of basic technological facilities such as computers and storage facility.
• The survey highlights the casual attitude of many in the police force towards judicial processes.
  
  • About three in five police personnel believed that there should be a preliminary investigation done before registering a first investigation report (FIR), no matter how serious the reported crime is.
    
    • This is in contradiction to a 2013 Supreme Court ruling which made it mandatory for the police to register an FIR if a victim discloses information about a cognisable offence.
    • This contributes significantly to the police’s failure in developing a people-friendly image is its inability to perform one of its core functions i.e. register crimes.
  • Every third police personnel surveyed agreed, for minor offences, a minor punishment handed down to the accused by the police was better than a legal trial.
  • A three-fourths majority believed it was alright for the police to adopt a violent attitude towards criminals.
  • The survey also found that a significant proportion of police force has a casual attitude towards mob violence.
• The survey also found that while the police personnel were sufficiently trained on physical parameters, weaponry and in crowd control, many lacked training on modules of new technology, cybercrime or forensic technology.
• This poor state of policing is reflected in India’s dismal ranking in the Rule of Law Index by the World Justice Project, wherein India ranked 68^th out of 126 countries.

Way Forward

• Policing in India is becoming more and more difficult, in this context, there is the need for Police reforms. Since, Police, law and order are subjects of state list, the government can start from urging all the states to implement recommendations given by the supreme court in Prakash Singh case.

Source: HT