India, with an area of 32,87,782 Sq Kms and a population of 1.4 Billion is a union of 28 States and 8 Union Territories. In a large and populous country like India thePolice force need to be well-equipped, in terms of personnel, weaponry, forensic, communication and transport support so as to be able to effectively perform its role. The police are a constituted body of persons empowered by theState, with the aim to enforce the law, to ensure the safety, health and possessions of citizens, and to prevent crime and civil disorder. Their lawful powers include arrest and the use of force legitimized by the state via the monopoly on violence. As part of law enforcement, police officers have four major responsibilities viz enforcing laws, preventing crimes, responding to emergencies, and providing support services. Though most people think of police officers as enforcing laws, the other three responsibilities are just as important.

The Criminal Law consists of the substantive law contained in the India Penal Code (IPC), special laws enacted by Central and State legislatures, and the procedure of law as given out in the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 (Cr.P.C.) and the Indian Evidence Act 1872. These three major acts were enacted by the British during the second half of the 19^th Century. Of these, the only major law that has been revised since independence is the Cr.P.C., which was revised in 1973. The other two laws, except for some minor amendments, have remain totally unchanged. After almost 70 years of independence, we are still governed majorly by Indian Police Act (IPA) of 1861 which was drafted as a direct consequence of the Revolt of 1857.

Police Reforms, though proposed from time to time have never been implemented by successive governments on one pretext or the other. There has been almost 30 years of debate on policing and reform in India, with several government-appointed commissions submitting reports and recommendations for police reform to government. The most comprehensive recommendations came from the National Police Commission (NPC), which from 1979-81, completed eight reports and drafted a Model Police Bill. Subsequently, two more official Committees have drafted model police legislation, with CHRI as an active participant on both. These model draft Police Acts have not moved an inch forward. In 2006, the Supreme Court of India ordered directives. Inspite of this direction by the Apex court there has virtually been no progress. It is argued that government should virtually have no power in the matter of postings and transfers of police officers. It is considered that one of the things which sap the morale is arbitrariness in personnel management and, therefore, such arbitrariness must be removed. The grievances redressal machinery suggested by Soli Sorabji Committee and pleaded for before the Supreme Court by persons who are fighting a series of writ petitions in the form of Public Interest Litigation, would be procedure bound and would not be able to give quick relief to a person who has a complaint against the police. The first is to remind the police of its own authority under law and then keep a strict vigil to ensure that the police actually functions according to the law. The second, equally important approach is that whereas arbitrariness by officials and politicians in dealing with the police is eliminated, the system of accountability is tightened and the police must be forced to render account and tread the right path.

In Prakash Singh Vs Union of India (2006), SC delivered a judgement instructing the central and state governments to comply with a set of seven directives that laid down practical mechanism to kick-start police reforms.Since the police is a vital part of our criminal justice system, it is necessary to institute a wider spectrum of reforms rather than focusing simply on police reforms.The thrust of the existing directives of the Supreme Court is only limited to postings, transfers, personnel, policies, creation of security commissions at the state and the national levels, the separation of investigation from law and order, and, the constitution of a police complaints authority at various levels. A closer look at all these recommendations reveals that none of them would be able to address the expectations of the general public for a speedy and inexpensive justice delivery system. As such, these reforms can be taken to be only the first step towards the larger goal of reforming the entire criminal justice system.

The primary role of police forces is to uphold and enforce laws, investigate crimes and ensure security for people in the country.The responsibilities of the state and central police forces are different. State police forces are primarily in charge of local issues such as crime prevention and investigation, and maintaining law and order. While they also provide the first response in case of more intense internal security challenges (e.g., terrorist incident or insurgency-related violence), the central forces are specialised in dealing with such conflicts.Further, the central forces assist the defence forces with border protection. The centre is responsible for policing in the eightUT’s.

Why are Police Reforms necessary in India

Huge Deficiencies in Police Force.  With the phenomenal expansion of the geographic area to be policed and the increase in the number of lives to be guarded, the Indian police, more than in many western democracies, have been stretched and outnumbered. There are only about 140 policemen per 100,000 people, a very poor ratio when compared to other modern democracies which is approx. 220 per lakh population.

Over Stretched Force: Police force is over-burdened especially at lower levels where constabulary is forced to work continuously for 14-16 hours, 7 days a week. It adversely impacts their performance.

Working Conditions: The nature of the duties is very uncertain and the police itself say that policemen are on duty all the time – it’s a violation of Human Rights.

Risk. Risk to life in Police is very high. Policemen are killed in India in the performance of duties than in any other country of the world. There’s no indication that in future the risk element would be less.

Lack of Suitable Modern Infrastructure:The weaponry, vehicles etc. used by police force at lower level is obsolete and is unmatched with the modern weaponry used by the criminals and anti-social elements.

Training of the Police Force: Police training methods have been out dated and aspects of human rights are largely ignored in training modules. Training of police officials is heavily biased in favour of higher-level officials. 94% of the total training expenditure is on IPS officers’ training.

Politicization of Police: Politicization of a police force is a major problem as it affects the autonomy of police force making them to subserve the interests of political executive at the cost of ordinary citizens. CID at the state level has failed to perform because of political cases led by the ruling parties against their opponents and because of excessive political interference by political executive.

Lack of Co-ordination between Centre and States It is a matter related to maintenance of law & order results in ineffective functioning of police force. The dual command at district and state levels have resulted in the problem of co-ordination between the civil servants and police officials because of ego clashes and inconceivable personal differences.

Politicisation of the Police Force.  This is a huge problem consequently the police force are not in a position to curb the crime in effective manner.

Ineffectiveness against new forms of crimes: Police force is not in the position to tackle present days’ problems of cyber-crimes, global terrorism, naxalism because of its structural weaknesses.

Judicial reforms not effective. These reforms are not effective as most of the criminals are not punished for the crime they committed. Inspite of recommendations of various commissions’, crime investigation has not been separated from maintenance of law & order.

Underutilisation of funds for modernisation: Both centre and states allocate funds for modernisation of state police forces. These funds are typically used for strengthening police infrastructure, by way of construction of police stations, purchase of weaponry, communication equipment and vehicles. However, there has been a persistent problem of underutilisation of modernisation funds.

Corruption : The pay scales of police personnel especially at the lower levels are very low and they are forced to adopt corrupt means to earn their livelihood. Prevalence of Rank system within the police force results in abuse of power by top level executive over lower level personnel.

Conclusion

The escalation of the crimes speaks for itself on the state of the criminal justice system in the country. In order to understand the reason behind it, it is important to look into the two facets of criminal justice viz the police and the judiciary, after all crime and criminals are nabbed by the police and punishment/justice is delivered by the judiciary.Broadly, reforms are needed on three fronts:-

           (a) First improvement in capacity and infrastructure of police forces,

(b)  Second revisiting the constitution of police forces in the country through legislative/ administrative changes, and

(c) Third technological scaling-up.