16 th Feb 2015 is Delhi Police Day-Some Suggestions

Dear Friends,
Today (16th Fenruary, 2015) is Delhi Police Day. It is Delhi Police's 68th Raising Day.
On this occasion we, the residents of South Delhi should list out 5 actionable points that we should should recommend to the Delhi Police as well as the policy makers. Am listing out few points that are provided below. These have been endorsed by Guild of Womens Service as well and have been sent to the Home Minister as well. The Police on their side should also advocate for these and they are:

1. Revamp Police Stations
• Re-claim police stations as spaces of public utility and design them such that they are accessible to the public. The services that the public is entitled to should be listed and put up on notice boards inside every police station. Police stations could have an open visitors’ book where any member of the public can record their arrival time, name and signature.
• Ensure that police stations comply with proactive disclosure requirements under section 4(1)(b) of the Right to Information Act 2005. The RTI Act requires all public authorities to publish suo moto, or proactively, a wide range of information on their own, even if no one has specifically requested it. Presently this is not the case.
• Upgrade all police stations so that facilities are available for the public, staff, records, accused, investigators and as far as possible standardized. Police stations in Kerala are required by law to have such facilities. One model is the ISO certified model in Rajasthan. Adequate budgets must be available for this.
• Equip police stations and lockups with CCTV cameras linked to police headquarters in order to prevent malpractice.
• Make rude, impolite and inconsiderate behavior by police personnel to members of the public a serious act of indiscipline.
• Embed the beat system into local policing, with permanent, specially trained beat officers to ensure constant contact with the local community,
• Fill all vacancies in a time-bound manner.
• Raise the manpower strength of every police station in proportion to the crime and population of that area. This deployment shall be annually reviewed.
• Have adequate numbers of women in all police stations to fulfill duties under the laws relating to women and children. All police stations must have a Women and Child Protection Desk, staffed as far as possible by women police personnel to record complaints of crimes against women and children.
• Take swift action against any police officer who refuses to register an FIR, as directed by the Supreme Court.

2. Develop Policing Plans
• Ensure that every police station has a clear action plan in relation to improving safety and security of the area. This plan must be made in consultation with the local community at large through regular, well-publicised public meetings.
• In addition to the police station level, ensure that policing plans (both annual and short-term) are made at the district and state levels. These shall be formulated in consultation with the local population through regular, well-publicised public meetings.
• Review meetings to assess progress and public satisfaction must be held quarterly.


3) Improve the Police Response to Crimes Against Women
• Increase the presence of police personnel, including women police, on the streets and increase the visibility of women police officers in police stations
• Immediately comply with all:
o Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) advisories and Standing Orders on Crimes Against Women; and
o Accountability provisions effected through the Criminal Law (Amendment) Act, 2013.
• Develop and make public specific operational protocols on the police response to, and investigation of, crimes against women, namely rape, domestic violence, molestation and sexual harassment, where needed.
• Conduct specialised training on crimes against women for Investigating Officers.
• Abandonment of the lecture system for sensitization. Need to create small groups with partnership of the NGO’s who can from time to time visit the police station.

4. Appraise the Performance of the Police
• Ensure the State Security Commission measures police performance at the State level regularly and openly after devising objective indicators, such as service delivery, response time, registration of complaints, and other similar indicators which should be both quantitative and qualitative. This will put an end to the present method of measuring police performance through the number of crimes registered and cases ‘solved’.
• Ensure that police station inspections

5. End the Misuse of Police Personnel for Non-Policing Work
• Abolish the use of police personnel as orderlies for any domestic or private personal purpose (cooks, drivers, attendants, etc) by police officers of all ranks (Recommendation of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Home Affairs, 169th report).
• Abolish the use of police personnel as personal security guards (Recommendation of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Home Affairs, 169th report).
• Make any such use of police personnel by seniors an infraction of the code of conduct, punishable with disciplinary penalties.

regards
Aditi more