REFORM POLICE LEADERSHIP STRUCTURE

 Recently Sh Prakash Singh published an article titled “Don’t neglect the force”. He focused on adhocism in selection of heads of central armed police forces, toll it takes   of morale and motivation. His focus was solely on CAPFs higher hierarchy. Along with CAPFs, there is also an urgent need to focus on an important issue of reforms in police leadership structure. These reforms if implemented will improve morale and motivation in police forces and certainly create   positive functional environment in police command structure and  make police a well-oiled functional machine.

 Sh Julio Ribeiro in his opinion piece “Choosing wrong men to lead” in The Tribune dated 26 March 2021 sums up what ails police force. He says, “There is no dearth of honest police officers, only of political will”.  National Security Advisor Ajit Doval addressing young police officers during a lecture organized by Bureau of Police Research and Development (BPR&D) says, “Law making is most sacrosanct job in democracy and you are the enforcers of that law. If you fail to enforce laws, democracy fails. Law is as good as it is executed on ground”.Statements from veteran police officers point towards police politicization and leadership shortcomings in ensuring professional conduct.Police leadership inability to control Delhi riots forced government to bring in national security advisor (NSA) for restoring confidence of the minority community. His field interactions helped restore public confidence but also brought into focus, public distrust in professional competence of police leadership.

 Delhi riots, police lawyer clash in Delhi, Manipur violence brought into focus  unprofessional police approach in handling situations. What is true for Delhi and Manipur is true all over country. Professional leadership turns weak force into strong and formidable asset. Opposite is equally true.  Sh Julio Ribeiro and Sh KPS Gill turned Punjab police into a formidable professional asset, which fought terrorism head on and eliminated it.

Police leadership  and police performance is assessable   based on United Nations rule of law  indicators such as  public confidence, effectiveness and efficiency , integrity, transparency and accountability, treatment of vulnerable groups and capacity measured through availability of material, human resources, administrative/ management capacity.

There are innumerable problems of capacity in police, which need urgent attention of government since gaps in capacity affect functional efficiency and professionalism. As per BPR&D data on Police organizations as on 01 Jan 2021, Chapter 2, Police population ratio per lakh of population for year 2020 is just 193.95 compared to 193.39 for previous year. Similarly, police area ratio per 100 sq. kms for year 2020   is   80.07 compared to 79.80 previous year. Population, individual policeman needs to look is 515.59 for year 2020 compared to 511.81 previous year. Area per police person for 2019 is 1.25 Sq. Kms. As per BPR& D data, police vacancies    stands at 5, 62,328(Five lakh sixty two thousand three hundred & twenty eight only). About 21.37% of police posts are vacant meaning there by that police is functioning with 78% of its sanctioned strength. The strength of women in Police is   2,17026 (Two lakh seventeen thousand twenty six only is just about 8% of sanctioned police strength.

 As per national crime records bureau(NCRB)  crimes in India 2021 statistics volume 1 page 24, “disposal of IPC cases by police and court”, all India conviction rate for 2021 for murder cases stands at 42.4 %, rape at 28.6%, kidnapping and abduction at 29.3%, rioting  at 21.9% and hurt at 37.1% percent.  The conviction rate is quite low which calls for need to improve professionalism in investigation and evidence collection with more emphasis on scientific and technical evidence.

 Large area of responsibility, vacancies, poor mobility, large population pool to police, increased workload decrease efficiency; pose innumerable difficulties for lower level police functionaries. In addition, there are administrative issues concerning housing satisfaction, leave, rest & relief and under staffing. Understaffing cause police personnel to spend more time in field, fatigue, little time for family and social obligations. All these lead to irritation, stress and depression among police personnel. Shortcomings lead to functional difficulties, point towards police leadership inability to address capacity issues, which ultimately affect professionalism.

 Hard fact is that police constable, visible  police face  is overworked, suffers from anxiety, irritation, and stress. Sometimes it turns into depression. This leads to behavioral abnormalities, affecting him, his family and society. Behavioral abnormalities sometimes make him rash and violent. He forgets the restrictions and limits of law while behaving with fellow citizens. Is not police leadership aware of these realities? What steps have been taken to improve mental health of police personnel?  Training deficiencies, increased workload and stress works like a time bomb on field leadership and constabulary. Little pressure is enough to crack it. The Delhi police-lawyer clash cracked the police force. It indulged in open show of defiance and indiscipline.  Higher police leadership struggled to reign in those indulging in public spectacle of indiscipline. No one questioned leadership, no heads rolled. Government treated whole spectacle as normal. Wrong precedent set for future.

Police structure is layered into three composite layers consisting of higher leadership, field leadership and constabulary. Police leadership structure need reforms.   Higher police leadership comprising   Indian Police Service Officers starts from Senior Superintendent of police up to Director General and field leadership from ASI to additional superintendent of police. There is need to analyze both for their professional contribution in ensuring police effectiveness. The top-heavy higher police leadership structure has diluted dynamism in police, affected police leadership stature among subordinates, public and eroded professionalism. Bloated police leadership structure need trimming. The second category, field leadership is on ground to manage law and order and investigate.  This leadership knows the ground since rise from ranks. It needs motivation and morale boosting. The slow promotional avenues with difficult service environment have affected this leadership negatively which also percolates to lower levels of command.  Higher and field leadership need to complement each other in professional manner for effectiveness on ground, however, politicization of police at all levels plays spoil start negating efforts at complementation. Casualty is police professionalism, command and superintendence, respect for channel of command, ability to stand up for right and ward off political influence. 

Police leadership is responsible for ensuring operational and administrative efficiency of police force through proper training and upkeep of morale. Field staff look for directions to leadership. The police leadership inability to correctly appreciate situations and plan is major cause of police inability to   handle situations and over dependence upon armed forces. Ineffectiveness to handle situations stem from many other factors like improper training, corruption, bureaucratic and political interference. All these in ultimate affect policing and police health. Police leadership cannot escape responsibility and   accountability for failures.

Therefore, urgent need is to make the police force at cutting edge, strong and professional. Empower field leadership since it emerges from ranks and understand local policing needs. Remove undercurrents of dissatisfaction, frustration and lack of motivation by improving service conditions of field level leadership and police constabulary. The police leadership structure needs revolutionary reforms and changes to make police an effective   law and order tool. The hegemonic leadership functional pattern and top-heavy structure needs reformation. First step at reformation of structure need to start from trimming bloated top-heavy police leadership hierarchical structure and enmesh field leadership in the structure to make police effective and professional. This is not possible without fundamental reforms in police organizational structure. 

 Detach selection for IPS from civil services and conduct separate examination for induction into Indian Police Service. Make psychological tests mandatory for induction into IPS and state police service. Make medical examination and qualification of laid down professional courses mandatory for promotion for all ranks. Make in-service police training compulsory for all ranks. As part of this training, police station posting for IPS and state service police officers be made mandatory for first three years of service to perform field duties and next posting given only after successful completion of police station tenure. Amend rules so  that a direct entry sub inspector can aspire to reach up to the rank of superintendent of police and at least fifty percent of posts in higher police ranks up to director general are reserved for state police service officers.  Ensure filling up of vacancies in time bound manner. Improve infrastructure at police station level and modernize present infrastructure in terms of mobility, communication and housing facilities. Positive results will be visible on ground. As they say that it is never, too late to make positive amends, here is hoping that the present government, which never hesitated in taking difficult decisions, introspects, orders urgently needed changes in police leadership pyramidal structure to make police an effective and truly, community oriented machinery, which through public cooperation ensures peace and harmony.  Professional police force will also provide breather to armed forces    releasing them from internal security paradigm to enable them to solely focus on primary role.