In keeping with the Prime Minister's call for making the police SMART (S-Sensitive and Strict, M-Modern and Mobile, A-Alert and Accountable, R-Responsive and Reliable, T-Techno savvy and trained), the Union Home Ministry is examining the inputs from States on the best practices implemented by them to arrive at a uniform set of processes and procedures which could be followed by all states in the policing system.
This was stated here today by Jaideep Govind, Additional Secretary, Left Wing Extremism, Ministry of Home Affairs, while addressing a Policy Roundtable on SMART Policing - India's Growth Imperative, organized by FICCI in association with the Indian Police Foundation and the IPS (Central) Association .
Govind said that the inputs received from the States on SMART policing emerged from four conferences where the State Police Departments shared their experiences in areas such as best practices in community policing, deployment of technology, modernisation of control rooms and transparency in police recruitment process.
He underlined the critical need for making police stations public-friendly as it was important to ensure a people-friendly police for ensuring internal security and observance of the law.
J F Ribeiro, former Mumbai Police Commissioner and former DGP, Punjab, emphasized the need for creating a humane police force, one that is not dreaded by the people. This, he said, would not happen unless policing is transparent, there is a mindset change amongst the people to follow the rule of law and the police is freed of interference by the political establishment.
He said that the growth impulses to the economy will not be triggered unless literacy and health issues in the Human Development Index are addressed squarely. Once this was done, there would be greater adherence to the rule of law by the people, he pointed out.
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Prakash Singh, Chairman, Police Foundation and Institute and former DGP, UP and Assam, described the present internal and national security situation as "grim and dismal'. While advocating the urgent need for internal and national security doctrine, he said what the Home Ministry has done is cosmetic reforms. The need of the hour, he emphasized was systemic reforms that frees the police forces from political interferences and insulates it from external pressures.
Singh said that it was high time the country introduced a single Police Act and brought police and public order on the Concurrent List through a Constitutional amendment.
Akshya Singhal, Director, EY LLP, in his presentation, indicated that 40 percent OF India's geographical areas was covered under Red corridor; India's score in Global Terror Index stood at 7.86 and was ranked 6th after Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Nigeria and Syria; the country suffered 20,000 human losses in terror and naxal attacks till 2015 and Rs. 65,000 drug trafficking cases were reported in the past four years.
Calling for a holistic police performance measurement system, Singhal said that there was a need for a historical performance assessment based on a restricted set of crime-focused indicators as crime-focused indicators may change police attitude, thus adversely impacting people's confidence and crime statistics may create perverse incentives for the police thereby discouraging reporting. He also stressed the need for improving efficiency and effectiveness and effectiveness of policing based on optimum resource allocation.
The session on Internal Security Risks and Challenges - Implications for India's Growth discussed the critical challenges of internal security risks, its growing ramifications for business and growth, the need to define the national internal security vision and agenda which could cascade down to states, the need for greater role of the Center for overall internal security issues, present fact sheets, reports and recommendations to serve as a tool for sensitizing policy makers and the need for greater allocation from the Center for Police Modernisation.
The discussants were: Maroof Raza, Consulting Editor (Strategic Affairs), TIMES NOW, Prof. S. Parsuraman, Director, Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai; N. Ramachandran, President and CEO, Police Foundation and Institute of India and Former DGP (A & M), Government of India and ; Mr. Praveen Swami, National Editor, Strategic and International Affairs, The Indian Express; Industry Representative.
The subsequent session on Solutions and Way Forward - SMART Policing and Police reforms, the discussions focused on the need to strengthen the policy framework in order to fully realize India's vision for Homeland Security by encouraging greater public private participation; reinforce the long-pending needs for reforming and strengthening Indian police; need for intelligence led policing or predictive policing; promotion of good governance, accountability and transparency in policing; capacity Building, outreach and collaboration for effective crime prevention interventions; mainstreaming of use of technology in the police work and creating SOPs for effective delivery of services.
The discussants were Manjari Jaruhar, Chairperson - FICCI Committee on Private Security and Former Special DG - CISF, Government of India; V. Vumlunmang, Joint Secretary, Police Modernisation, Ministry of Home Affairs; Dr. Muktesh Chander, Special Commissioner - Traffic , Delhi Police; Subodh Vardhan, Managing Director, Motorola Solutions India Pvt. Ltd., P M Nair of Tata Institute of Social Sciences and T. K. Arun, Editor, The Economic Times.