It is of grave concern that police personnel are not available in adequate numbers to perform duties at stations and reserve camps, the reason being callous lapses in the management and deployment of forces at the state's disposal. In a way, the police force is being misused because they are mostly deployed at areas where their role is perfunctory.
In 2005, a commission intended to revamp the police force was instituted by the Kerala government and I was the head of that commission. Even though we proposed changes that could have been easily implemented, none of them were implemented.
Many senior officials use policemen for their personal needs and this must be stopped immediately. If their security is a concern, let them depute policemen from the Armed Reserve.
Such policemen should be used only for ensuring security and not anything else. Similarly, there is no need to depute policemen at the Treasury because even banks that transact more than what the Treasury does on a daily basis do not have the services of policemen. The same is the case with the Post Offices where the quantity of money transactions are quite large.
There is also the tendency to use policemen for issuing summons from courts, which wastes three-four days of many people. The court should hire people for such needs. The police are also being used to transport jail inmates and a lot of money and manpower is wasted for this.
If possible, at least formal procedures of cases may be completed in the jails. For this, Magistrates can visit the jails once a week. Other methods such as video conferencing can be used to complete the case procedures with least hassles and maximum efficiency.
Another important need is to stop escorts for VIPs -- let officers from the Armed Reserve be utilised for this purpose. Currently VIPs use the service of pilots and escorts, which wastes time and money of many people.
When I was the Supreme Court judge me and my colleagues used to deal in cases involving big mafia. We never had pilots or escorts and we never needed one. Then what is the need for such an elaborate security ring for VIPs? Security may be heightened only if there is a compelling need for it.
The Armed Reserve and the local police may be merged. The former is deployed only in the case of severe law and order problems. That too must be changed and the Armed Reserve should be deployed in any situation that may be deemed as an emergency.
IGs and ADGPs are often deputed to other departments. In such cases, those departments need to arrange their security needs. There is no need to deploy the police at Ombudsman, Lok Ayukta, Human Rights Commission and so on. They all can do with their own staff.
The police undergo rigorous training that involves significant use of resources and therefore their role must not be trivialised. If any of the changes suggested is difficult to be implemented because of legal problems, then concerned laws should be amended. If some of these suggestions are implemented, many of the problems affecting the police department may be solved effectively.
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