Its a long article, but worth a read. :)
**Disclaimer: The following post is not at all intended to hurt anyone's sentiments or blame anyone. Its just a mere thought, an individuals thinking combined with facts attained from a newspaper. The overall intentions are good and to make people understand some conditions that they maybe unaware of.**
Lately I read a article on Delhi cops in the newspaper. There are times when the police fails to protect us and act on time ... and all the questions are laid down on the cops, that why they fail to protect us, fail act on time when expected to. Are we right at our places just to blame them? Or is there a reason behind that ... ?
I always thought as a kid, that being a police man, having so much respect it will be so great. People put all their trust in the police, fight crimes, help out the citizens ... Earn respect. Has the main value of the service been lost somewhere in this time? Of-course it is not. Not all the officers are the same, leaving out some, there are still many who want to keep up that respect and name of a police officer held high but unfortunately are drawn back due to some reasons.
A side of this was uncovered in the article, and would like to share the facts with you.
Police these days are termed as ineffective by the people, an uncouth force that terrorizes people rather than protect them ... The journalist Indrani Basu working with TOI spoke to a lower functionary of the force to unveil a lesser-known side of the daily functioning of the 76,000 - strong team that is supposed to keep the city safe.
The police man that had joined the force, never knew that how he's spend time doing things other than what he had been trained for. The control room roughly receives 24,000 calls daily; 70% of these are not policing matters. Almost daily the police receives calls for civic disputes, problems with electricity supply, pressure of stray dogs, monkeys - the list is endless. Civic agencies should handle such complaints, but people call the police as other control rooms don't spring into action. There have been issues when the police man himself has fetched electricians or other technicians to resolve some issue.
The public takes the police as unruly and uncouth. *(Please do not misunderstand the statement, i clearly mean to say it in a general way and not at all directing the statement to someone or some group specifically)*.
Much of this has to do with their working conditions. Unlike other govt. departments, all of which have fixed working hours, cops don't have any shift system.
A police man may have a 12-hour duty, but if a distress call is received 30 minutes before they are to leave, they must attend the call. This can take hours and many a times - the next 12 hours - to sort out. It's usual to work 24 hours without rest and continue the next day as stated by the police man. The Delhi Police Act says that an officer is on duty round the clock. A policeman gets a month's extra salary every year to compensate for working without a shift system, but this compromises quality of work.
Many a times, the officers at the station don't get vehicles to respond to a distress calls. They usually end up using their private vehicles for conveyance to reach the crime spot. There are 15-20 cops per police station. But nor more than 4-5 motorcycles are provided to each. Most bikes are on patrolling duty.
Some stations have an emergency response vehicle. The conveyance allowance up to an Inspector's rank is about Rs. 375 a month. This cripples the work. There is a need for proper emergency response unit for every call received; not leave an officer to his own devices.
Investigations throw up their own kind of miscellaneous expenses that one never sees in the official statistics. From getting the postmortem done to collecting forensic reports, the pockets of the officers is made lighter in many different ways. A police officer has to submit a charge-sheet within 90 days, but with the limited forensic facilities, the invariably incur expenses to get the results on time.
Of-course there are provisions to claim the investigation expenditure, but the process is very tedious. Also there are no proper bills for most of the expenses. For example, every year officers remove several dead bodies. Police officers have to make their own arrangements to retrieve the body and take it to the mortuary. Usually, they rope in a passerby willing to do the job in return for payment that comes from their own pockets. How can they claim such expenses ??
Police officers don't even have basic facilities. No buildings or land are demarcated for police stations when an area is developed. Outposts come up based on need. Many times such outposts are mere tents. Officers don't even feel like they work for a serious organization.
Several stations don't have facilities for overnight stay, thought the duty can stretch up-to 3-4 days continuously. Issues of mosquitoes, unhygienic surroundings and unavailability of fans plague many. Some police stations don't even have access to drinking water. There may be no water connection even. Lack of proper facilities causes them to function with a negative frame of mind.
Like taking an example. I put up in south Delhi. I have a red light merely 10 steps away from my house. Lately the police has started to put a check post there to check all the cars exiting in the night hours (11 PM - 4/5 AM). This started of during the last week of our 5th semester examinations, and the nights were already cold. One day just randomly I went into my balcony, and the streets were quite so I could here the cops talk. They were cribbing about the cold and their feet freezing. They didn't even have a place to sit in the cold, and had to work throughout the night. They came and borrowed a stool from my neighbor's guard and were sitting down turn by turn. The people passing by were stopping and shouting at the cops for making them wait and for checking their cars instead of having a little peace of mind that something is being done to make the neighborhood more safe.
I had taken a pic of this night. Its a little blurry as I was in the balcony and did a full zoom from my camera phone. But you'll get the idea.
Such tough work conditions make the police unhappy, which at times compromises the police public interface.
The police constantly deals with criminals with no stress-relieving facilities provided. Many cops need psychological counseling, therapy to deal with the daily stress. No such facilities is available. Some medical camps have raised these concerns but they are never resolved.
Due to all these conditions, many cope with them by resorting to corruption, anger, brutality - a vicious cycle. People who are to protect us, be our saviors in times of need are in these conditions. Some take their duties too lightly; others who want to do something, are drawn back.
When things don't work out properly, when there are some flaws, we are right to raise our concerns with the police as we put our trust in them to protect us, but is it right for them to take all the blame ??
**Disclaimer: The following post is not at all intended to hurt anyone's sentiments or blame anyone. Its just a mere thought, an individuals thinking combined with facts attained from a newspaper. The overall intentions are good and to make people understand some conditions that they maybe unaware of.**
Lately I read a article on Delhi cops in the newspaper. There are times when the police fails to protect us and act on time ... and all the questions are laid down on the cops, that why they fail to protect us, fail act on time when expected to. Are we right at our places just to blame them? Or is there a reason behind that ... ?
I always thought as a kid, that being a police man, having so much respect it will be so great. People put all their trust in the police, fight crimes, help out the citizens ... Earn respect. Has the main value of the service been lost somewhere in this time? Of-course it is not. Not all the officers are the same, leaving out some, there are still many who want to keep up that respect and name of a police officer held high but unfortunately are drawn back due to some reasons.
A side of this was uncovered in the article, and would like to share the facts with you.
Police these days are termed as ineffective by the people, an uncouth force that terrorizes people rather than protect them ... The journalist Indrani Basu working with TOI spoke to a lower functionary of the force to unveil a lesser-known side of the daily functioning of the 76,000 - strong team that is supposed to keep the city safe.
The police man that had joined the force, never knew that how he's spend time doing things other than what he had been trained for. The control room roughly receives 24,000 calls daily; 70% of these are not policing matters. Almost daily the police receives calls for civic disputes, problems with electricity supply, pressure of stray dogs, monkeys - the list is endless. Civic agencies should handle such complaints, but people call the police as other control rooms don't spring into action. There have been issues when the police man himself has fetched electricians or other technicians to resolve some issue.
The public takes the police as unruly and uncouth. *(Please do not misunderstand the statement, i clearly mean to say it in a general way and not at all directing the statement to someone or some group specifically)*.
Much of this has to do with their working conditions. Unlike other govt. departments, all of which have fixed working hours, cops don't have any shift system.
A police man may have a 12-hour duty, but if a distress call is received 30 minutes before they are to leave, they must attend the call. This can take hours and many a times - the next 12 hours - to sort out. It's usual to work 24 hours without rest and continue the next day as stated by the police man. The Delhi Police Act says that an officer is on duty round the clock. A policeman gets a month's extra salary every year to compensate for working without a shift system, but this compromises quality of work.
Many a times, the officers at the station don't get vehicles to respond to a distress calls. They usually end up using their private vehicles for conveyance to reach the crime spot. There are 15-20 cops per police station. But nor more than 4-5 motorcycles are provided to each. Most bikes are on patrolling duty.
Some stations have an emergency response vehicle. The conveyance allowance up to an Inspector's rank is about Rs. 375 a month. This cripples the work. There is a need for proper emergency response unit for every call received; not leave an officer to his own devices.
Investigations throw up their own kind of miscellaneous expenses that one never sees in the official statistics. From getting the postmortem done to collecting forensic reports, the pockets of the officers is made lighter in many different ways. A police officer has to submit a charge-sheet within 90 days, but with the limited forensic facilities, the invariably incur expenses to get the results on time.
Of-course there are provisions to claim the investigation expenditure, but the process is very tedious. Also there are no proper bills for most of the expenses. For example, every year officers remove several dead bodies. Police officers have to make their own arrangements to retrieve the body and take it to the mortuary. Usually, they rope in a passerby willing to do the job in return for payment that comes from their own pockets. How can they claim such expenses ??
Police officers don't even have basic facilities. No buildings or land are demarcated for police stations when an area is developed. Outposts come up based on need. Many times such outposts are mere tents. Officers don't even feel like they work for a serious organization.
Several stations don't have facilities for overnight stay, thought the duty can stretch up-to 3-4 days continuously. Issues of mosquitoes, unhygienic surroundings and unavailability of fans plague many. Some police stations don't even have access to drinking water. There may be no water connection even. Lack of proper facilities causes them to function with a negative frame of mind.
Like taking an example. I put up in south Delhi. I have a red light merely 10 steps away from my house. Lately the police has started to put a check post there to check all the cars exiting in the night hours (11 PM - 4/5 AM). This started of during the last week of our 5th semester examinations, and the nights were already cold. One day just randomly I went into my balcony, and the streets were quite so I could here the cops talk. They were cribbing about the cold and their feet freezing. They didn't even have a place to sit in the cold, and had to work throughout the night. They came and borrowed a stool from my neighbor's guard and were sitting down turn by turn. The people passing by were stopping and shouting at the cops for making them wait and for checking their cars instead of having a little peace of mind that something is being done to make the neighborhood more safe.
I had taken a pic of this night. Its a little blurry as I was in the balcony and did a full zoom from my camera phone. But you'll get the idea.
 |
| Police Officers Standing at night, doing their duty, without any proper provision provided to them. |
Such tough work conditions make the police unhappy, which at times compromises the police public interface.
The police constantly deals with criminals with no stress-relieving facilities provided. Many cops need psychological counseling, therapy to deal with the daily stress. No such facilities is available. Some medical camps have raised these concerns but they are never resolved.
Due to all these conditions, many cope with them by resorting to corruption, anger, brutality - a vicious cycle. People who are to protect us, be our saviors in times of need are in these conditions. Some take their duties too lightly; others who want to do something, are drawn back.
When things don't work out properly, when there are some flaws, we are right to raise our concerns with the police as we put our trust in them to protect us, but is it right for them to take all the blame ??
nice article .. enlightened me about some facts !!!!
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