Prevention of crime is the need of the hour – what is the solution?
Normally common men and women are afraid to raise their voice against any atrocities, crime and antisocial elements . Usually they used to bear these crime to the maximum extend by themselves When it is unbearable to them, they try to approach the police. But the police take its own time to understand their pain and never even bothered to register their complaint and file an FIR to take an action against the other party. In some cases, the affected ones have to go to court to file an FIR, this is an order of the day even now. Those who don’t have an access to police system, judicial system, bureaucratic system and finally political system have to merely become the silent spectator of the atrocities committed by the survival of the fittest and have to bear the brunt of crime committed against them. That is the plight of the common man even today after getting independence since 1947 in many of the states.
The sheer witness are the recent victims such as Acid victim Vinodhini in Pondicheery, Amanat in Delhi - a mass rape victim, who had woken the people at large. Particularly in these two cases, since police has not filed an FIR and failed to take action on the previous complaints, we have lost the two precious lives of girls who were aspired to become an engineer and doctor. There are many unknown voices have been continuously trampled upon by the lackadaisical attitude of the governance system in place and the police system in existence.
Majority of the crime may be prevented, particularly when police take immediate and right action at the initial stage of the crime itself. Many issues of democratic polity established over the period of 6 decades in the name of democracy, police hands are tied together and the right thinking police are fed up with the system and they fail to act on the problem. If you act on a particular problem, and get into some other problem, it is quite normal for any normal official to think better to not act on it and work on the ABCD method of working.
First Avoid when people approach with a problem, next Bypass by saying that it is not under my jurisdiction, even after they persist Confuse them by offering unnatural solution so that it suits the influential people and biased ones, even then they persevere, then implicate them in a case against them, so that the poor fellow is crushed and get them destroyed. In such a scenario, how come the common people will get protection against crime and law and order will be maintained.
The First Police Commission was appointed on 17 August 1865, which contained detailed guidelines for the desired system of police in India and defined police as a governmental department to maintain order, enforce the law, and prevent and detect crime. Instead of preventing and detecting crime and enforce the law and maintain order, today’s after 150 years our police force is well trained now to file a case after crime is committed, enforce the law after the order is violated, prevent the affected and victim to get justice and protect the perpetrators of the crime.
In such a scenario, the anti-social elements get more encouragement to commit more crimes and escape without evidence, law abiding citizens have to literally live fearfulness due to the failure of present administrative system, police administration and delay in justice delivery system. Committing crime has become a profitable business due to the failure of the speedy justice delivery system.
What happened to our efficient police system? Nowadays, majority of the police opt for traffic duty, VIP duty and other simple duties and not willing to involve themselves for crime investigation, crime prevention and maintain law and order. There is an increasing attitude of this kind among the police personnel is a dangerous development. Because most of the time, the police force is diverted to handle VIP Security, control the crowd, agitations and other forms of democratic protests and many times for fulfilling the political aspirations by the ruling class. In this situation, when they will get a time to concentrate on preventing the crime and protect the citizens. Very few efficient police officers are handling the crime investigation efficiently since they are interested in their work and worshiping their work. They maintain integrity and their consciousness keeps them going without yielding to any influence or pressure; sometimes people get at least delayed justice to certain extend because of these kind of sincere policemen are existing even now
Every new political dispensation comes to power with an aim to reform, but once they come to power, they fail to focus on the basis fundamental foundation for development that is maintaining law and order. Fails to provide a safe and secure environment for the citizens to live, work, earn and prosper. Concentrating on the societal transformation measures to lead an enlightened life by every citizen is the responsibility of every family that is vital, but the ultimate responsibility of the elected government is to focus on providing a safe, secure and peaceful environment for socio-economic development of the state. But if you look at the history, majority of the state governments failed to rise up to the occasion and failed to reform the fundamental framework of the development that is police reforms.
Without major reforms in our police system, coupled with systematic accountability, mere taking token measures to tide over immediate crisis are mere eyewash. It is important to implement the laws, speeding up the criminal justice system, ushering in meaningful police reform. Repeated major tragedies and crime rate reveals the failure of police to uphold the rule of law and prevent the crime. Indian police continue to be governed by an archaic and colonial police law passed in 1861. The Indian Constitution makes policing a state subject and therefore the state governments have the responsibility to provide their communities with a police service. However, after independence most have adopted the 1861 Act without change, while others have passed laws heavily based on the 1861 Act.
The need for reform of police in India and - fundamentally- the police laws has been long recognised. There has been almost 30 years of debate and discussion by government created committees and commissions on the way forward for police reform, but India remains saddled with an outdated and old-fashioned law, while report after report gathers dust on government bookshelves without implementation.
These publications sets out selected reforms of these committees, beginning with the National Police Commission, the first committee set up by the Indian government to report on policing. The National Police Commission began sitting in 1979, in the context of a post-Emergency India, and produced eight reports, including a Model Police Act, between 1979 and 1981.
In 2006, due to a lack of action by all the state governments in India, the Supreme Court of India ordered the state governments to report to it why the reform measures outlined were not implemented. After being questioned in front of the judges of the Supreme Court of India, the state governments are finally starting to reform the police forces and give them the operational independence they need for fearless and proper law enforcement. Tamil Nadu Police has been in the forefront of application of the new referendum.
Again in October 2012''''Bold text', a Supreme Court bench of Chief Justice Altamas Kabir and Justices SS Nijjar and Jasti Chelameswar asked all state governments and Union territories to inform about compliance of its September 2006 judgement. The order was passed when Prakash Singh through his lawyer Prashant Bhushan said that many of the reforms (ordered by the Supreme Court) have not been implemented by several governments even after 6 years.
Many state governments are not worried about implementing the police reforms, how can they will be vibrant in preventing the crimes, protect the citizens from anti-social elements and maintain law and order situation.
Leave alone implementing the police reforms by the state governments, we may hope that some time it may see the light of the other side of the tunnel. But the kind of crime rate and the technological advancements which the perpetrators of the crime is using, what we need is the following. We need a preventing police force which can sense and detect the crime at the bud, create a sense of terror among the perpetrators of the crime, prevent the crime at the nib. This police system should investigate the crime intelligently using state of the art technologies to deal with the crime against women and children, murder, rape, theft, criminal intimidation, cheating, land grabbing, cybercrime, terrorism, hired killing by a group of motivated jobless youth and many other crimes and bring them to the speedy criminal justice delivery system in a fast track court established specially to deal with.
We need to establish a Smart Intelligent Police Force for Deducting and Preventing Crime and maintain Law and Order. This police force has to be a new police force with the stringent selection process equivalent to IPS selection and training and a new state cadre has to be created. This cadre has to deal only with crime sensing, detection, prevention, investigate and bring the perpetrators into justice and maintain law and order. From village to City, the entire crime and L&O has to be dealt with this new police force. Newly selected candidates have to be in this Smart intelligent Police Force under the direct leadership from IPS officers, and the police personal from this group can work only upto 15 years, then they will move into normal police force. The present overburdened normal police force may be relieved off from the criminal investigation and maintenance of Law and Order and may be deployed into traffic, Security, VIP Security and handing crowd and other day to day administrative duties of the police force.
We need to evolve ethical citizens from our families, the other side we need stringent laws to be enacted by our elected legislators; we need honest implementing agency – police and administrators, and finally we need a speedy justice delivery mechanism.
If the duties and responsibilities are understood by each and every level and act on to fulfil their duties and responsibilities, then peace and prosperity is assured and inclusive development is possible by the vision of the political governance. When the police are skill enabled, knowledge enabled and empowered to handle the crime in sensing, detecting and preventing the crime then only the law and order will be maintained to bring peace and prosperity to the state.
Hence for the sustainable development the basic fundamental building block is to have a preventing police system which can rise to the occasion to bring peace and provide safe and secure environment to the common citizens.
Only this kind of environment will reduce the crime against women and children and provide a safety net to the common man in this country.
This is my personal opinion.
V PONRAJ
12 Feb 2013
vponraj@gmail.com
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