The falling image of the law-enforcer

Cops framed questions to kill 'Jessicacase'; 'Cops go berserk, thrash workers'; 'Police action against docs is brutal,unprovoked'. They're making headlines for all the wrong reasons. Beit a murder case, industrial unrest or peaceful protests, police areincreasingly at the receiving end for going over the top in situations they aresupposedly trained to handle. To complicate matters further, they'retaking on tasks that training taught them nothing about ��� moral policing.After Meerut's Operation Majnu, policemen are asking live-in couplesto get married in Shillong, preaching morality to hand-holding couples inChandigarh, driving lovers out of parks in Orissa and falling over each other toprobe wardrobe malfunctions on the ramp in Mumbai. Net result: Theimage of the law-enforcer is plummeting. Recent instances point to the lack ofthree essential factors of good policing: impartiality, effectiveness andhumaneness. The public perception seems to be that the police isbrutal, corrupt and inefficient. According to surveys byCommonwealth Human Rights Initiative (CHRI), 50% of Indians are not convincedthey are helpful. "Those protesting against reservations in Mumbaiwere students and not anti-social elements. But it's unfortunate that the policecan't make a distinction," says retired IPS officer K S Subramaniam. It allboils down to bad training, he feels. "The colonial mindset hasn'tgone after so many years and people are regarded as enemies of the state."Which raises a host of questions: At what point is it justified touse force? Are the police adequately trained? Has the force lost focus over theyears? Former CBI director Joginder Singh shows where the faultlines lie."Unlike the Election Commission or judiciary, the police are not anindependent agency. They are subjected to political and social pressures thathave proved their undoing," he says. Gujarat 2002 is a primeexample. When former Punjab DGP K P S Gill was appointed security advisor to theCM in the riot-torn state, there was only one condition he laid down: nointerference. Even Gujarat's top cops admitthat after Gill entered the scene in May 2002 ��� three months afterviolence broke out ��� the state began to return to a semblance of peace.The norm, however, is to play it safe. "Inaction is never punished,action is. And who speaks out for cops?" Singh wants to know. If a mob lynches apoliceman who is merely doing his job ��� as happened when Bangalore wentballistic at the death of filmstar Rajkumar ��� the issue gets buried, butif the police open fire to control that mob, they are taken to task."However, there is no excuse for what happened in Gurgaon wherefactory workers were protesting or when the police attacked doctors in Mumbai.Incidents like these are an exception and should be handled the same way," Singhquickly adds. But while there could be scope for mistakes, thereshould be none for blunder, says former West Bengal DGP Arun Prasad Mukherjee.In his view, the way to combat these 'exceptions' that triggerpublic outrage and snowball into bigger issues, is to ensure that cops are notexcessively armed. "The more you arm a cop, the more such problemsare bound to arise," he says, adding that even a lathi gives the policeman anoption that is easier than negotiation. "I have seen it in my days.If a cop is not heavily armed, he will bank on his mental and persuasiveabilities to defuse a situation. A gun gives him an easy way out."While Mukherjee finds nothing wrong with policing methods on paper,their training is another matter. "An effective and continuous trainingprogramme should be worked out for the force across the country. In fact, thereare senior officers responsible for just that, but a conscious effort islacking," he says. Also, more often than not, there are no lessonslearnt from situations that go wrong. The first response to almost every wrongis to find a scapegoat and transfer him. "A bali ka bakra(sacrificial lamb) is what everyone looks for," says Joginder Singh, agreeingwith Mukherjee when he says that nothing really comes out of such transfers."The idea of transferring cops as a means of punishment is only forpublic consumption. It serves no purpose, teaches nothing. Lessons should bedrawn from every incident that goes wrong," Mukherjee adds. Except that whilethe incidents proliferate, nobody seems to be paying much heed.