The necessity for substantive police reform
For police reform to be substantive, the first order of business should be the enactment of a new Police Act to replace the present archaic legislation enacted in 1861. The act is weak in almost all the parameters needed to govern democratic police legislation.
The act makes it easier for others to abuse and misuse the police organisation because it gives the government the authority to exercise superintendence over the police, without defining the word superintendence or prescribing some guidelines to ensure that the use of power will be legitimate. It also does not establish any institutional and other arrangements to insulate the police from undesirable and illegitimate outside control, pressures and influences.
For all latest news, follow The Daily Star's Google News channel. Besides, this law does not necessitate outlining objectives and performance standards, nor does it set up independent mechanisms to monitor and inspect police performance. The law is antiquated in its charter of duties, which is narrow and limited, and does not mandate the police to function as a professional and service-oriented organisation.
Another criticism is its dissonance with the requirements of democratic policing, which requires a police force to be publicly accountable and subject to the rule of law, rather than the whims of the party in power. In democratic policing, the force can intervene in the lives of citizens only under limited and controlled circumstances.
The principal characteristics of police organisation produced by the Police Act 1861 are: (i) preservation of status quo; and (ii) maintenance of order and avoidance of breach of peace. The law overemphasises the constabulary functions of the police as against the professional aspect of crime control. Except in the preamble, the act does not mention crime control. In fact, the duties of a police officer laid down in the law include obeying and executing all orders and warrants lawfully issued to him by any competent authority; collecting and communicating intelligence affecting the public peace; preventing the commission of offences and public nuisances; and detecting and bringing offenders to justice.
The duties also require police to apprehend all persons to whom he is legally authorised to apprehend; take charge of unclaimed property and furnish an inventory thereof to the district magistrate; keep order on the public roads and in the public streets, thoroughfares, and ghats and landing places and on all other places of public resort; and prevent obstructions on occasions of assemblies and processions on the public streets.
The principal objective was to administer a static, immobile and backward rural society living in villages and small towns. It envisages the exercise of authority without local accountability. It presupposes a society without any constitution, basic and fundamental rights, organised public opinion, mass media that projects and agitates public interest.
Police accountability is a crucial issue today. The advanced coercive, scientific, and technical tools available to police necessitate stricter accountability measures. The current system is not only ineffective but also lacks public trust. Therefore, it is essential to replace it with statutory bodies like the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) in England and Wales or the National Public Safety Commission in Japan. The IOPC is composed of civil society members, who investigate serious complaints against the police. Meanwhile, the commission in Japan ensures that police operations remain free from political influence. These apolitical commissions oversee police administration to protect it from daily political pressures both at national and prefectural levels.
Corruption arises from a combination of interconnected issues, such as inadequate salaries for police officers, extensive discretionary powers, outdated performance evaluation systems, substandard working conditions, ineffective internal oversight by superiors, and extremely weak external accountability mechanisms, including those through the judiciary, media, and parliament. If police officers feared job loss, they would have fewer reasons to engage in corruption. However, accepting bribes becomes a rational decision if the risk of losing their job is minimal compared to the financial gains from corruption.
Ensuring gender-sensitive policing is a critical element of ongoing police reform efforts in South Asia. Programmes and strategies aimed at changing police attitudes towards women involve the proactive induction of substantially large proportions of women into police forces of the region. A gender-sensitive training strategy for police personnel on how to handle the growing number of cases of domestic violence, harassment at workplaces and sexual assaults is also integral to the police reform agenda.
The three areas that need urgent attention if police were to be credibly transformed into a public-friendly, service-delivery organisation are corruption, inefficiency, and misbehaviour with the public. Policies and strategies seeking to reduce corruption in the police is needed although enhancing police efficiency through true professionalism and transforming public-frightening police into a public-friendly outfit have not been very successful in South Asia.
Any police reform strategy will have to consider several other key variables such as the structure of the government, the role of the judiciary, and political parties in administrative affairs of the country. The question is one of mandate of the police force and how serious the attempt to shift the basis of legitimacy of the police from an adversarial to a consensus or a community model is.
For too long the basic functioning of police has remained unchanged. Improving the quality of law enforcement needs to be a permanent and integral part of the national agenda, regardless of which party is in power.
Muhammad Nurul Huda is former IGP of Bangladesh Police.
Views expressed in this article are the author's own.
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