All the reforms on Indian police are being propogated by IPS leadership that itself is the part of problems of police in respective states. Former Commissioner of Delhi Police and now Governor of Nagaland Mr.Nikhil Kumar has accepted this fact that has been being higlighted by Team Nishan in its Campaign on police reforms
It seems that finally the dead conscience of police leadership seems to have woken up, that prompted Mr.Nikhil kumar, the former Commissioner of Delhi Police and now the Governor of Nagaland to admit the truth that Police in Indian states have been failed by none other than IPS officers. The post independence India must have seen thousands of IPS officers having whiled away their lifetime doing clerical job of monitoring statistical reports of crime data.
In a paramilitary structure of state police organizations, these officers enjoy absolute powers of appoitment,promotion,dismissal and transfer of frontline police officers. The entire organizational structure of state police organizations, its training, equipment, rules, regulations, protocols and practices are on paramilitary pattern that remains retrograde to democratic values of governance and cause of conflict between the public that comes in contact of police.
It is the organizational leadership comprising of IPS officers that should have taken the initiative to address the policy issues to make the police democratized but it has remain busy in advancing their vested interests and resulted into endemic corruption and further criminalization of police, this police leadership still has not been able to come out of colonial hangover in its work culture and its illegitimate actions and subsequent white wash exercises have too often turned public to rebel against the state authority and turn the democratically elected governments into adversary of the very people who elected them and thus eroding the trust of public on democratic institutions and preparing the environments where terrorism and insurgency can prosper.
Whether, it is police traffic stops, or special police checks, or commonman’s experience of getting a police complaint registered or investigations into henious crimes, police substantially ends up harassing the very public from whose taxes it draws it salaries and resources.
District police chiefs act as BABUS sitting in offices and working 9 to 5. As long as IPS officers are serving with the police they remain part of the system and hardly take even a single step to bring any institutional changes that may generate transparency, accoutability or skillful professionalism among the police and the moment they retire they start writting reams and reams of pages in criticism of the police and portray themselves as reformers and do more harm to the process of much needed reforms for the lack of practical experience but policy makers end up believing them for their past status.
The political masters have no independent mechanisms at the moment through which they can question the performance and practices of illegal police acts and bound to rely on the informations being fed to them by the none but perpetrators themselves and thus end up turning into adversary of the very public that elected them for being victimised by the police that is headed by them.
On 25th Jan 2012 In an informal interaction at Karnal between Sh.Sultan Singh,Ex-IPS Officer from Haryana Cader and members of Team Nishan, the Ex-IPS officer was very vocal in expressing his views on complete failure of Top Police Leadership for its unrealistic working due to lack of field experience and implementing policies that are taking its toll on police performance. The appointments of young IPS officers as district police chiefs with no field experience is one factor and creation of exempted Head Constables/Exempted ASIs/Exempted SIs has brought a situation that the constabulary that remains bedrock of policing and used to constitute almost 87% of the police, its number in each police station has dwindled to 3-4 constables.
He categorically admitted that IPS officers compromise for their postings in districts and bred corruption and tht this lays the foundation of corruption that proves biggest impediment in making police performance oriented. He expressed his firm views that there is no substitute of field experience and lack of it is failing IPS officers and their policies and in turn police in respective states.
Credit goes to Team Anna in general and Arvind Kejriwal in particular that has begun the journey of India’s transition to democracy by jolting India’s political class from its deep slumber and by waking up the conscience of the commonman.
It is the mobilization of masses on public issues that seems to have woken up the dead conscience of the Ex-Police BABUS in admitting their failures and position themselves to be now part of change.