Straight Line
Pilloried police and pompous platitudes
Readers of The Daily Star cannot but congratulate Syed Badrul Ahsan for his intensely thought-provoking and eloquent piece on how he would like to see our police perform. This writer is referring to Mr. Ahsan's column of March 5th wherein, amongst others, it was observed very poignantly that..."the real, paramount, need today is for a batch of educated, sophisticated men and women, those attuned to the ways of the world, to make it into the police service, indeed into any areas of public activity. Let there arise circumstances where the policemen in your neighbourhood and mine will give us little or no reason to gripe about their performance."
The above comments were occasioned by the alleged remarks of Mr. Nur Mohammad, the IGP to the effect that "most criminals in the country commit offences that are well within the knowledge of the police." If indeed Mr. Nur Mohammad, Inspector General of Police, has said what has been quoted above then he may perhaps be commended for his disarming candidness almost bordering on masochism of a sort that is un-characteristic of our establishment utterances.
However, our attention should focus on the salutary part of Mr. Ahsan's article insofar as it relates to the brilliant articulation of the societal concern for a caring police. This is a refreshing thought, as policing, for obvious historical reasons, remains a less than respectable profession in our part of the world.
This scribbler has been unsuccessfully venturing to state that the demand for a truly professional police outfit has to come from within the society, and thus feels encouraged when he sees a widely read column echoing the same view.
In fact, the crux of the matter lies in the reality that for too long we have restricted ourselves to the utterance only of pious intentions for police reform without getting into substantive corrective actions. A case in point is the less than desirable speed in enacting a revised Police Act by doing away with the archaic provisions of Police Act, 1861.
While appreciating Mr. Ahsan's pleading for a good police force it would only be relevant to look at matters in their proper perspective. The police organisation created under the 1861 Act was designed not to attract better talent, to ensure built-in subservience of the police to the executive administration regardless of the resulting corruption, lack of professional excellence, police highhandedness and police-public estrangement.
In fact, the police were impressed upon to act as the "hands" of the civilian authorities, thereby reducing the former to an agency of the latter. Such an arrangement practically excluded the Inspector General and his deputies from effective supervision of the police in the sphere of law and order. More seriously, the authority of the district superintendent was routinely interfered with, even in matters of internal administration of the force.
The above retrograde steps, including in particular the constant extraneous interference with the authority of senior police officers over the personnel under their command, not only had a crippling effect on the ill-conceived organisation, but also greatly exacerbated the bitter complaints of police oppression and extortion, apart from spoiling the discipline of the force.
In fact, as far back as 1902, the Sir Andrew Fraser Commission concluded that one of the major causes of failure of the 1861 Act was undue interference with the police by civilian authorities. There is effort even now by vested interests to continue that undue meddling.
To set the record straight, it should be said that there have been many instances where governments have been accused of using the police for political ends, as well as of individual politicians interfering with the administration and the work of the police. The norms that should govern the relationship between the party in power, the individual politician, and the police have still to be developed.
Due to the oft-repeated financial constraints our police have been compelled to bypass the constructive impulses of science and technology and find itself in an anachronistic situation. In Bangladesh, the apology of scientific facilities available to the police has thus naturally failed to constitute a system so very typical of a modern police outfit.
For educated men and women attuned to the ways of the world to make it into the police service as very fondly desired, the stumbling block is the general unpopularity of the service due to an unattractive pay structure not commensurate with the responsibilities of police duties, meager promotion prospects, lack of social recognition vis-a-vis other services, and a sense of uncertainty arising from political situations.
Many discerning observers are of the considered opinion that it is now almost impossible for conscientious men, not to speak of sophisticated, to think of joining police service because in independent democratic Bangladesh the attitude of the political establishment has hardened, thus making the police respond to the democratic protests with fury and unbridled violence. The distinction between public service and domestic service has dangerously thinned.
There will be many grounds to gripe about the performance of our police because, paradoxically, when extraneous interference grew the exhortations for stricter police accountability became louder.
Ironically, these calls for more accountability have been used to gain greater operational control over the police thereby debilitating the internal command and control structures.
The solution lay in doing away with the illogical concept of dual control as in the Police Act, 1861, allowing necessary operational autonomy to the police command, and then holding it effectively accountable when things go wrong.
The principal reason as to why persons of honour would be reluctant to join the police is that the police organisation under the 1861 Act was not meant to reward initiative, promote merit or manage and sustain organisational change. In fact, it was designed to promote and sustain a culture of status quo, with police hierarchy playing "second fiddle" to their "bosses" outside the organisation.
There are police officers, however, who are happy if change efforts focus on issues like better transport, more manpower etc. Their attitude becomes lukewarm when reform agenda entails more responsibility coupled with stricter accountability.
With regard to pay and perks, there were times when policemen were virtually expected to live on the ground. The situation has not really changed much, and given the wide discretion and power and the strains of the job it is indeed difficult to attract desirable elements into the organisation.
Add to that the oppressive work conditions and the absence of positive work ecology, the scene is maddening. In addition, the opportunity of being corrupt is low and, thus, the obvious rational choice is often the acceptance of bribes.
To be brutally frank, the profession of policing has to be salvaged from the morass of a politically and managerially incapacitated scenario. The rank structure has to be rationally changed in a phased way to enable the organisation to do a discreet job. This would require substantial injection of resources, which would only be possible with the support of a broad agreement across the political landscape on the future role and responsibilities of police.
The police needs to be organisationally accountable, operationally autonomous and neutral and functionally responsive. The question is, do we have the will to accord police reform the desird priority?
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