The persistent failure of police personnel countrywide to rise to bad occasions and discharge their duties with minimal competence has raised disturbing questions about police recruitment, education and training. Numerous police reform commissions and committee reports are gathering dust in government offices – Dilip Bobb is a former executive editor of India Today, Delhi The predominant image of 21st century India’s 2.8-million police force is not of a citizen-friendly keeper of public peace and order. The stereotypical image depicted in the media is of khaki-clad constables raining lathi blows on malnutritioned, and even elderly citizens. In recent months, this image has been reinforced after the tragic events in Hathras (Uttar Pradesh), over the brutal gang rape of a Dalit girl last September and clumsy cover-up attempts by the police, including senior officers. Before that, the Delhi Police was heavily criticised for its inept handling of the February 2020 riots in the capital’s north-east district. The police’s pathetic inability to restore peace in the riot-affected areas was excoriated by numerous public intellectuals and retired police officers. The 17,000-page charge-sheet, yet to be filed but leaked to the media, has one constable as a witness against seven accused. The report makes the impossible claim that the constable was able to identify the seven accused at different locations — all on the same day. These are only two recent examples of glaring ineptitude and lapses in police functioning. Since independence, the rock-bottom policing and investigative skills of the men in khaki have shown up in every major communal riot — Delhi (1984), Gujarat (2002) — and more recently in the Aarushi Talwar murder case in Delhi in 2008, and the tragic Sushant Singh Rajput suicide in Mumbai last year. The persistent failure of police personnel countrywide to rise to bad occasions and discharge their duties with minimal competence has raised disturbing questions about police recruitment, education and training. “Many of the principles and practices employed in our police academies are reminiscent of the traditional model of police training which was largely drill-based. Police personnel of all ranks need to be engaged in a continual re-examination of their roles. This cannot be achieved unless police leadership incorporates the latest concepts and practices in subjects as varied as criminology, sociology, cyber security, terrorism, criminal justice jurisprudence and organisational behaviour,” wrote Vinay Kaura, assistant professor at the Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies at the Sardar Patel University of Police, Security and Criminal Justice, Jodhpur (Rajasthan) in an essay in November 2018. Earlier, the Padmanabhaiah Committee on Police Reform (2000) and Second Administrative Reforms Commission (2016) castigated entry-level qualifications and training of constables as grossly inadequate. They recommended raising the qualification for entry into the civil police to higher secondary upwards graduates. They also recommended that constables and police personnel of all ranks should receive intensive soft skills training (communication, counseling and leadership) since they are required to interact with the public on a daily basis. Significantly, one of the principal recommendations of the Padmanabhaiah Committee…
