If Police Are People’s Protectors, Why Does The Thought Of Them Spark Fear In Our Minds?

An Informed Citizen

5 years ago

Do You Also Feel Discomfort Or Unease When You Think Of The Police?

NEW DELHI, INDIA – JANUARY 21: Police personnel seen during the rehearsals ahead of the Republic Day parade, at Vijay Chowk, on January 21, 2019, in New Delhi, India. (Photo by Raj K Raj/Hindustan Times)

Even though as a concept, policing has been in existence for generations, still, it has been unable to make people an easy recipient of its service.

This perception arises from a few things, I feel – from a perceived sense of lack of accountability, the police’s non-transparent way of working at times, and the utter confusion and secrecy around legal procedures. All of this ends up making people feel alienated from the very people whose constitutional job it is to protect them. The police’s own attitude of suspicion towards citizens further creates an environment of hostility.

Therefore, the dynamics of this relationship need to be improved to bridge the trust gap between the police and the public. Here are a few ways by which that can happen:

Promoting The Legal Awareness Of The Public

Promoting legal awareness among citizens to better understand police functioning and society’s problems at large can help bridge the information asymmetry among the community that has created the gap between people and the police for so long. Socio-legal education fairs by police staff for societies can be organised at regular intervals.

Training The Police In Dealing With People Empathetically

Training police officials in subjects like ethics and sensitising them to the public’s needs can go a long way in helping them build empathy. Using insensitive language (For example, questioning a rape survivor’s character) is one of the most important elements pushing people away from registering their grievances. Child and women-friendly specific departments in every tier 2 and 3 city police station should be established so that various sections of society can approach the police without inhibitions.

Involvement Of Citizens

The relationship between the public and police can be improved significantly through interactive engagement between these two entities. Community policing is a great and innovative idea in this regard. A few states – Janamaithri Suraksha Padhathi (Kerala), Community Liaison Groups (Uttarakhand) – have already started work on this.

In totality, structural and procedural changes within the police force will not help if behavioural changes are not carried out accordingly. Reforms have to be introduced at all levels so that the people’s protector can really be in tune with people.

Also read: The Recent Delhi Incident Highlighting Police Brutality Needs A Broader Perspective

PM Modi’s call for SMART’ police— Strict and Sensitive, Modern and Mobile, Alert and Accountable, Reliable and Responsive, Tech-savvy and Trained is a wholesome integrated approach to revamp our police. The police need to change their character from being a ‘force’ to a ‘service’ so that people don’t have to think twice before knocking on their doors.