The imperative of police accountability

The concept of police accountability involves holding both individual police officers, as well as law enforcement agencies responsible for effectively delivering basic services of crime control and maintaining order, while treating individuals fairly and within the bounds of law. Police are expected to uphold laws, regarding due process, search and seizure, arrests, discrimination, as well as other laws relating to equal employment, sexual harassment, etc. In a democratic society, the political process and elected officials serve to keep the police accountable and that they reflect the "will of the people". In turn, holding the police force accountable is important for maintaining the public's "faith in the system".

In colonial times before 1947 and, also thereafter, the State has functioned as an enforcement agency and in the process became alienated from the public. The police, as the main instrument of enforcement, earned a bad image. The police enforced 'order' in seclusion from community support, lending credence to the belief that it was the police versus the people. This is reflected in the Police Act 1861 and people's expectations from the police. 

The guiding principles of police accountability, according to wide agreement, are the following:

The first assumption is that order has to be maintained within law. There is a tendency in the police to restore peace and order even at the expense of violating the law. This is an important issue to ponder: how not to indulge in violating activities like torture, extra-judicial executions, and fake encounters? It is in this context that there is the need to acquire knowledge and skills used globally for conflict settlement and management without violating the rights of the citizens. 

The second assumption is to exercise power to protect the democratic rights of people. The understanding is that the police have been empowered to protect the democratic rights of the citizens.

Experience indicates that both state and civil society controls are exercised in relation to the following functions which the police are to perform for maintaining the rule of law and dispensation of justice:

* Crime detection and prevention 

* Investigation of crime 

* Protection of rights of citizens 

* Maintenance of public order 

* National and human security 

To perform these functions, the police, as per the law, are accountable to the command structure within the force, to the Ministry of Home Affairs, to the judicial system and through the Parliament to the people at large. The police department is under the Ministry of Home Affairs, and thus the Home Minister and the Government are answerable to the Parliament for the conduct of the police. Over the years, this institutional control has become routine and allegedly political control has often become the bane of policing. It is in view of these developments that various committees and commissions in the sub-continent have suggested that the selection of the police chief should be de-politicised and the investigation wing of the police should be insulated from external political pressures.

It needs to be borne in mind that the key to the criminal justice system is the application of the principles of accountability to the investigative, prosecution and trial systems. The command structure of the police has built-in performance and control mechanisms - inspection by an officer, crime review meetings at the government, district and police station levels based on indicators like charge-sheeting, conviction, clearance rates, crime data including incidence of crime, number of unsolved cases, causes of spurt in crime, etc.

The power of police in any society is derived from the communities they serve. The public invests responsibility in its police to enforce the laws and, in some rare cases, to use force against citizens. This is an extremely important segment of responsibilities that the police must use with caution and care. In cases where police overstep their responsibilities and engage in misconduct, they can be removed from their positions and, in the most extreme cases, prosecuted for violating the law. The major way in which citizens ensure that the police are exercising their responsibilities within the parameters set by the community is through police accountability measures. 

The key to the effectiveness of any of the police accountability models is the role of the supervisor. The first-level supervisor must be trained and inclined to use the information that influences the behaviour of his officers. Initial training is essential because in many law enforcement agencies training in employee supervision is extremely limited when officers are promoted to supervisory positions. In many cases officers simply try to replicate the behaviour of their prior supervisors whom they obeyed and followed.

In the area of police accountability, the role of the supervisor is critical. When supervisors ignore difficult employees or fail to effectively intervene in cases of employee misconduct, the resulting situation not only affects the future behaviour of that employee but negatively affects the attitudes and orientation of all employees, who quickly identify a double standard between what an organisation says are its values and policies and what happens to employees who fail to carry out these policies or reflect the organisational values.

The writer is a columnist of The Daily Star.