NEWS > 15 January 2007

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Financial Express.bd - Banglad
15 January 2007

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Reorganising police for a mode

Syed Ishtiaque Reza
1/15/2007

THERE is concern everywhere about the declining standard of police force. Discipline is in disarray, morale is very low and police personnel require better training to be better equipped to deal with law and order in a globalised changed world where human rights and other democratic values are highly weighted. Besides, the society with the growing number of educated people who are ready to assert their rights, offers a new situation where policing in the traditional way is more counter-productive than useful.
In any discussion about police the issue of corruption comes first. There is a strong perception about perpetual corruption in the police department. Similar the view is about the unconcealed desire to keep the police as submissive as possible to any ruling party. A party in opposition that lashes out against the ruling party of a time for misusing the police employs the same police machinery to fix its political foes when it goes to power.
Any reform agenda for the police must attach the top priority to its operational freedom. Next, there should be an improvement of their functional environment, which means better compensation, stricter departmental discipline, comprehensive training regime and, most importantly, civilian oversight of their performance. The police can rid themselves of their corrupt and inefficient image if they are given the support they need from the government.
It is felt that there should be a Police Complaints Authority to look into complaints against police officers up to the rank of SP and above. The investigating police should be separated from the law and order enforcing police to ensure speedier investigation, better expertise and improved rapport with the people. It must, however, be ensured that there is good coordination between the two wings.
The government should also set up a National Security Commission which will review from time to time measures to upgrade the effectiveness of the force, improve its service conditions, ensure that there is proper coordination between them and that the force is generally utilised for the purposes it was raised and make recommendations in that behalf.
Under section 54 the police officers rounded up thousands of people before the blockade. And the general complaints were that almost all of them were released after payment of money. This has become very regular. The police should not be allowed to use section 54 indiscriminately. A regulatory mechanism involving judges should be evolved to protect innocent people including political opponents from arrest without warrant.
Police officials should be protected from political leaders and influential offenders by provisions such as making it mandatory to record all instructions from any higher authority and regular monitoring of these records by the office of the regulatory commission. This will reduce fear of intimidation, which drastically dissuades police from carrying out investigation if the offenders are influential.
Citizens should be made aware of what the police can and cannot do, and such information must be provided and displayed in all police stations. Attitudinal change through training of the police force is a necessity and their recruitment and retraining must emphasise the social commitment required of them including morality in their public as well as private life.
Some other long term solutions can also be thought about. Police administration should be decentralised and the basic force should work at sub-district level. The incentive and punishment structures in police administration should be reviewed and made fair. Incentive and punishment structures in police administration are not based on service to the community but on the servitude to the people in power and having influence, which is a colonial legacy not befitting the requirements of an independent country. Alliance of police with influential people for private/personal gain begets corruption.
Police service should be made such that the service attracts the best quality products of the educational institutions with high moral and integrity together with commitment to public service. Provision should be made for police to exercise power consistent with the job. The police autonomy is to be overseen by special committees composed of cross-section of citizens. The policies and programmes of the police force should be modernised in the light of existing socio-economic realities.
On many occasions experts say that the community involvement in preventing crime would certainly benefit the people by improving the performance of the police. But that's not an easy job. A lot of police resources are required for public order. It has to be acknowledged that police do have a significant public order role. But when it comes to things like access to justice that needs to be improved. Police cannot do it all by themselves. The number of people under remand in Bangladesh is quite high. If one looks at law and order in Bangladesh, one of the conclusions which comes up is that there needs to be some sort of agreement across all political opinions for maintenance of discipline in public life.
There needs to be more specialisation among the police who are investigators while remaining responsible for doing other things. Most police organisations around the world have worked on it. The resources could be used more effectively in protocol duties. There is a need to have a closer look at how police duties are allocated.

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Article sourced from

Financial Express.bd - Banglad15 January 2007

Reorganising police for a mode

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Financial Express.bd - Banglad
15 January 2007