VISION FOR THE INDIAN POLICE

The most basic requirement of any good governance is a vision, an ability to

look ahead to the future of the country with great expectations and endless
possibilities in sidelines. This is potential of evolving the governance to greater
heights to herald an era of successes and prosperity. Visions carve paths to the
future and prod the governance to navigate along the couloirs. It provides a
break from the quotidian plod in preference to innovative strides to fulfill the
vision. Governance sans vision is like building an edifice a tatons without a plan
or blueprint. It at best is a random erection. Vision gives direction and purpose
to the governance. It gives grandeur and a proportion to the process. No
governance can be good and complete without a vision to steer ahead, and true
governance can be built only on the terra firma of a vision. The old concept of
a prosperous India is based on the vision of “Rama-Rajya.” The new concept
of India coming of age is based on the vision of a world power or a regional
power in Asia. Once a vision of that dimension is contrived to back, it is easy to
put the pluses and minuses to conceive a strategy towards the end. Otherwise,
governance is nothing more than a mechanical motion.
Shree A. P. J. Abdul Kalam, the hon’ble former President of India is quoted
in Introduction to the “Report of the Committee on India Vision” prepared by
the Planning Commission in December 2002 as saying, ‘A vision is not a project
report or a plan target. It is an articulation of the desired end results in broader
terms.’ The same report in Conclusion enumerates Nine Nodal points of Indian
Prosperity, which as adapted and edited to the police and policing of the 2020
vintage, can be summed up ut infra:
1. PEACE, SECURITY & NATIONAL UNITY—Physical security both
from external and internal threats—strong national defence, domestic law
enforcement and social harmony.
2. PRODUCTIVITY SECURITY—A vibrant and highly productive
policing sector that can ensure national security, generate stability, stimulate peace,
and produce a safe and confident social fabric.

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3. JOBS FOR ALL—A departmental commitment to ensure the right of all

police personnel to be employed round the year in policing according to his merit
competence and skill.
4. KNOWLEDGE—An environment of cent per cent expertise in policing
activities all over the world including latest policing techniques, latest police
technologies, organizational and administrative updates from all over the world,
law reforms and related matters by training and exposures to maximum police
personnel.
5. HEALTH—Care towards physical well-being of all citizens.
6. TECHNOLOGY & INFRASTRUCTURE—Continuous expansion of
the physical infrastructure for rapid low-cost transportation and communication
that is required for effective policing competitiveness and policing aides.
Application of computers to improve access to knowledge and information,
and increase in the speed, efficiency and convenience of activities in all fields of
policing.
7. GLOBALISATION—Successful integration of Indian Police with the
policing activities world over.
8. GOOD GOVERNANCE—Farsighted and dynamic leadership to
maximize effective policing, security and social justice through responsive,
transparent and accountable administration that removes all the bottlenecks to
successful policing.
9. WORK VALUES-Activation of all these nodal points requires firm and
determined adherence to high values, including prompt decision-making,
disciplined execution, systematic implementation, finely tuned co-ordination,
unceasing effort and endurance.
The report also says that the future depends not on what will happen, but on
what is decided to become, and on the will to create it. The vision of 2010 or
2020 must be one in which all levels and sections of the police and all of its parts
march forward together into a more productive and prosperous future. The
vision of ‘police 2010’ and ‘police 2020’ is discussed under these parameters
provided in the report as a national perspective with the purpose of bringing
about uniformity of approach and identification with the national thought
process.
PARAMETERS OF CHANGE
Panta rhei. Change is a universal phenomenon and the proof of life. Change
is the manifestation of adoption and adaptation and a carrier of the process of
the evolution. No living organism or organisation can remain unchanged
between 2006 and 2010 or 2020. Necessitas non habet legem. Necessities of the

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environment dictate terms for changes and changes occur inter se. That is a sign
of growth. This is so for the police also. Police being an essential service, it can
never remain a deadwood, ergo, must show signs of life and concomitant
propensity for change. But the clavis here is that natura non facit saltum. Change
is a gradual process running on the bedrock of certain definite parameters.
Understanding here is prognostication. Assessing the parameters of the change
in this perspective gives clues to the dynamics that shape the police of 2010 or
2020. A vision is possible and shapes on the determinants decided upon on the
terra firma of these parameters. Vision gives direction to the flow of the
dynamics of the change, and determination to pad-up and execute the vision
provides fuel for realizing the vision.
POPULATION GROWTH
Increase in population does have significant impact on the challenges and the
performances of the police, and inevitably on the direction it takes for its growth.
Ability to assess the challenge provides an allee to decide upon how disadvantages
can be converted into advantage to envision the police of the 2010 or 2020
vintage in an advantageous mould corresponding to the overall national interests.
Corresponding to the increase in the global population from 6.3 billion in
2006 to estimated 6.7 billion in 2010 and 7.5 billion in 2020, India which is home
to 1/6 of the humanity is expected to have its population rise from 1.1 billion
in 2006 to 1.18 billion in 2010 and 1.35 billion in 2020 ipso facto figuring to 1.6%
population growth per annum. Police being the custodian of peace, security and
national unity in the environment will have larger challenges and responsibilities
to shoulder and endure, necessitating appropriate measures to stand up to the
problems and do better.
GLOBALISATION
With further shrinking and diminishing of the globe to a global hamlet in the
next fifteen years thanks to advancements in the fields of transport and
communication, the magnitude of policing also becomes globalize with its own
advantages and disadvantages. The shift certainly renders policing a trans-border
phenomenon touching humanity tout ensemble. With crimes and criminality
increasingly transcending national borders, policing no more will remain an intra-
border affair by 2020 and cooperation between the police in the international
arena in the common interests of the rule of law and justice will become the
condition sine qua non by then. Extradition and exchange of criminal intelligence
will become centric to effective policing processes.
It is not only transport and communication that render the globe smaller to
an aldea and contributes to bring global dimension to the criminality. Computer

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and Internet revolution added another dimension to the issue along with global
economic enterprises and their global reticulations adding their own
contributions to the ascensive criminal tendencies and their global spread. Cyber
crime is gaining its own currency in the police parlance with its reverberations felt
in countries across the world. It will be trans-border cooperation or perish for
the profession of policing in the milieu of the globalization. Terrorism as an
international phenomenon against humanity will bring the need of watching and
addressing trans-border crimes into sharp focus even to the exclusion of
common intra-border crimes in priorities.
TECHNOLOGY EXPLOSIONS
Technology is a powerful vehicle of the successful policing and constitutes the
spine of effective policing. This is one factor that renders change inevitable for
policing to update itself to keep au courant with the latest technological
developments affecting police and policing as aides either in criminal or policing
activities. Technology explosions touching policing activities either as carriers of
the policing activities or as policing techniques occurred in recent past are bound
to continue with accrescent pace in coming years and the technology
advancements in related fields in the next five or fifteen years will be considerable,
calling for suitable updating by the police. Again it is ‘remain fit or perish’ for the
police. Au reste, it is left to the vision of the top brass how to meet the gauntlets
and make best out of the vicissitudes. If police fails here, criminals, anti-social
elements and the hors la loi will take advantage of the situation and gain upper
hand in this field to be the ultimate apollyon of the policing concept as the savior
of the innocent and law-abiding citizens. It is an issue of whom among the police
and criminals take better advantage of the open market of the technology
explosions for survival and bring the other to its knee. Police ignore this bitter
concours at its own peril.
Technology advancements in the fields of transport and communication do
have pollent impact on the policing methods as they serve as the harbinger of
faster response time and provide access to areas unthought otherwise as possible.
Communication technology is in excelsis these days and bound to make further
progress in coming five or fifteen years. Computer and Internet technologies are
the other fields to be watched as a pollent tool of the information technology.
E-governance is a by-word now. It will be an omnipresent reality in 2020 with
2010 forming a part of the transition period. It will be particularly so in a key
sector like policing with e-policing through computer and Internet technologies
in policing methods and techniques going hi-tech apart from police
administration and organizational activities being fully computerised. Computer

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and Internet technologies by 2020 may change the very face of the policing all
over the world so much that the present police systems will remain by that time
only as a matter of archival interests. Policing techniques too may find
revolutionary changes if extant technological advancements are any indications.
Latest technologies like DNA profiling for identification and related activities
will find universal acceptance as popular as fingerprints and footprints now.
Even the researches on stem cells coming with solutions to decide and perhaps
cure criminal tendencies cannot be ruled out. Also, feracious researches and
discoveries on super conductivity, solid fuel and liquid nitrogen and allied
subjects may find some relevance to the process of the policing and policing
techniques by the year 2020 if not earlier in 2010. What is called for is a vision and
vigilance in part of the police leaders to make use of the breakthroughs at the
advent of the right time to overtake the visionary and vigilant criminals in the
concours for the superiority.
ECONOMIC GROWTH
Economics and crimes algate go pari passu. They are the two faces of the
same coin in any society, more so in a democracy, and economic growth
perforce affect crime and criminal fields, ipso facto police orientations in a major
way. India’s increasingly dynamic and vibrant economic base lends credence to
the view that India can achieve and sustain higher than historical rates of
economic growth in the coming decades. The compounded effect of achieving
the targeted annual GDP growth rate of 8.5 to 9 per cent over the next 20 years
would result in a quadrupling of the real per capita income and almost eliminating
the percentage of Indians living below the poverty line. This will raise India’s rank
from around 11th today to 4th from the top in 2020 among 207 countries given
in the World Development Report in terms of GDP. Further, in terms of per
capita GDP measured in ppp India’s rank will rise by a minimum of 53 ranks
from the present 153 to 100. This will mean, India will move from a low-income
country to an upper middle-income country. It will be a major accomplishment
indeed that is certain to make major impact on the crime scenario of the country.
Human greed is the main culprit. Inequality and disparities of the economic
growth, particularly in an open market milieu is the second Momus. It is dumb
to presume that economic growth brings peace and stability. The truth is other
way round. Statistics have proved that economic growth in the form of unequal
distribution of the national wealth always increased the propensity towards
violence, crime and instability in the country. This will be the major concern of
the police in 2020.

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SOCIAL AND POLITICAL DYNAMICS

Factors like social inequities, conflicts arising out of the conversion of the
traditional stratified society to egalitarian society, religious extremism, interstate
territorial disputes, racial and linguistic violence and radical politics of the Maoist
Communist Party variety will continue to plague the police of both 2010 and
2020 and keep them on their toes if not further add to their problems. India-
Pakistan conflict may also continue to plague the country in form of internal
instability prompted by ISI and such external agencies. In spite of terrorism
prompted by external elements and extremist activities from disgruntled internal
elements, police is expected to maintain the Indian social fabric intact, and this
will be a major challenge to the police by 2020.
TARGETS FOR THE POLICE
Peace, security and national unity are the pillars on which the edifice of the
police is constructed. Social justice and removal of the injustices from the face
of the society are its prime objectives. Crime prevention measures, crime
investigation, enforcement of the laws of the country, security measures,
regulating and establishing order in the public life for the commune bonum are
the tools of the police to accomplish these objectives. Police is duty-bound to
perform these objectives and bring about a sense of safety and security among
the people, and a sense of unity without disturbing the social fabric of the country
and without offending basic human rights. People look to the police for their
safety and security. The country looks to the police as an esemplastic factor in the
process of the nationhood. And the society looks to the police for protecting
their interests and basic human rights from vested interests. In the increasingly
complex society of the 2020, these cardinal contraplex objectives of the police
will continue to eat up to its vitals unless sound police alferez finds a balance and
guides policing in aurea mediocritas.
Indian police of the 2020 vintage with that of 2010 in a transition to the end
will come on par with the police of the advanced western countries and the
weltgeist in schemes for the protection and safety of the weak, feeble and
exploited sections of the society. Novel and revolutionary schemes for the
protection of children, women, elderly citizens, weaker sections and helpless
foreigners from the exploitation will find favour with the Indian police in the next
five to fifteen years.
ELDERLY CITIZENS
Elderly citizens of the age 65 years or more will rise to 76 millions in strength
in 2020 from 58 millions in 2010 and 51 millions in 2006. This section of the

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society that is weak and incapable of looking after itself needs priority attention
to averruncate exploitations of their age-related infirmities in a society in which
their children because of prolate migrations to foreign countries or other parts
of the country for job-related or other encheasons assurgently leave them to their
own fate unattended. The elder citizens are found targets of specific crimes and
exploitations by unscrupulous elements, and police worth the name should have
special programmes for their safety and well-being. Police of advanced countries
including the United States of America have special schemes and programmes
for the safety and protection of this section of the society. Indian police is yet to
catch up with the zeitgeist though scattered attempts are felt here and there. But,
concrete measures in this direction are yet to shape up. Indian police must see
awakening itself to this aspect of its responsibility by the year 2020.
CHILDREN, WOMEN, FOREIGNERS
All weaker sections of the society need special attention of the police with
specific schemes for protection after avizefull study of crimes and criminal
tendencies in the field and adoption of protection machinery most suited to the
situation. Just having schemes do not make any difference. There should be will
to earnestly execute them and bring safety and protection from exploitation to
all the sections of the society to bring in overall atmosphere of peace, security and
freedom from exploitation in the country in cause of its policing objectives.
Indian police certainly will rise to this professional commitment by 2020.
Child labour is a crime as well as a social dilemma in a country where for many
a square meal is a luxury. Though India has myriad Acts meant for the protection
of the weaker sections of the society like children, women, SCs & STs, and
bonded laborers, often their enforcements are found lacking in will to execute
and sometimes steeped in social problems. The confusions and incertitudes in
enforcing social legislations are likely to be overcome with the coming of age by
the police by 2020 to meet the overall objectives to bring about an atmosphere
of peace, security, stability and national unity to the country without disturbing
the social fabric of the country.
In the ambience of globalization, safety and security needs of the foreigners
also warrant priority attention. Incidence of rape and extortion of foreigners is
increasingly becoming a common phenomenon in India these days. Indian police
leaders will find themselves hand-tied by 2020 to attend this menace in the
interests of their own country.
CRIME INVESTIGATION
Investigation is an area Indian police needs to improve considerably. Key to
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51% so that there can be a claim that majority of the hors la loi goes behind the
bar. But, it is a far cry from the reality in any police organisation including the
Central Police Organisations in India for any category of crime. That means
conviction for a crime is an exception rather than a rule in India and crime goes
unpunished. This reality must change if police is to be relevant to the future crime
situation of the country in 2020.
Another important field where Indian police needs change of its image is
completing investigation within a time-bound frame of three months, or better,
less. Justice delayed is justice denied. Time is a crucial factor in bringing a culprit
to the justice. Period that goes unpunished after a crime a la money borrowed
incrementally adds to the free life of the criminal at others’ expenses. It is not
seldom in Indian situation to see convictions coming after the death of the
criminal, or after the criminal fully made use of the res gestae, thereby rendering
Indian criminal justice system and its conviction an ironical farce. This should stop
if Indian police has any passion and commitment for justice and crime
investigation process. It is another vision of the police 2020.
These are not something impossible objectives to be achieved in the next five
or fifteen years. Political will and committed police leadership at the helm can
easily achieve these targets. And fifteen years is not too short a period to
accomplish these crucial feats. After all, vision of India in 2020 is predicated on
the belief that human resources are the most important determinants of overall
development, and it is here that the Indian police needs to focus to achieve these
targets. Indeed minor amendments to the criminal laws of the country after
convincing the political leadership and procedural updates with an iron hand
should be able to bring about these changes. It is a vision a portee for
accomplishment by 2010, if not by 2010 or earlier.
COMMUNITY POLICING
Policing ideally is a job performed for the people, through the people, with
police acting just as catalysts in the process. Police as the specialists in the field
initiate and guide the volunteers from the public pro bono publico. They provide
information and expertise input in the process. The function of the police in
policing in a democratic milieu is just that of an alferez; a friend, guide and
philosopher. Secondly, the crucible of policing in precipitating justice needs to
be transparent, and accountable to the public. This need can be met only by
involving the public in the process of the policing. Thirdly, no police organisation
however mammoth and powerful it be, can do full justice to its work without
the cooperation of the public. Ergo, true policing needs to be community
policing-centric. This aspect also covers counseling and consultation aspects at

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crucial levels. Community policing lightens the quotidian burden of the policing
to the police, so that the latter can focus on macro aspects of the policing touching
national interests and international angle.
PROFESSIONALISM
A major handicap of the extant Indian police is the infusion of
nonprofessional decisions to the mould of professional decisions of the policing
whether it is in service matters like postings and transfers or policing processes
like investigations and enforcement of rules and laws. All the present maladies
emanate from the politicians who are only concerned with winning of the next
elections. The paramount need of the future police is a professional image tout
au contraire to present image as a handmaid of rich and powerful. What is
required is a perspicacious definition of police duties and responsibilities and
entrusting the force to perform the duties under the avizefull eyes of the
constitution without the distractions of interferences ab extra. The police should
have free hand to tackle and solve issues cropping up during the process of
policing with concomitant responsibility for any failures squarely lying on its
shoulders.
Until the organisation is extricated from the grip of politicians practicing
machtpolitic, it cannot hope to rise above mediocrity either in proficiency or in
character. Such mediocrity is wont to percolate downwards in a democratic
setup. Lack of character among the noumenal police leadership actually brought
the police forces in India to its knees before the political leadership of the
democratic vintage where more often than not, politicians bear the major share
of the criminal activities of the country. This is a triste affaire for both the country
and its police. The situation is slipping from bad to worse ad nauseum. Indeed
these are mauvais moment for the Indian police. But, no bad days are a jamais
and the tide should change. After all, post tenebris spero lucem. It is a desperate
vision that the bad days in the annals of the Indian police will be over by 2020
and Indian police will come clean under sound police leadership and right
political leadership by that time. This can be achieved by the creation of the
Policing Authority at the helm of the policing affairs of the country.
An All India Police Authority accountable only to the President of India at the
national level with the regional Police Boards in States as independent bodies
need to be created to oversee and take major decisions pertaining to policing and
service matters including assessment of performances and transfers more suo.
A Supreme Court Judge must head the Authority with the Union Home
Secretary and the Cabinet Secretary as members and the senior most police
officer of the country as the member-secretary. The regional Police Boards must

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have a High Court Judge at the helm with the Home Secretary and the Chief
Secretary as members and the State Police Chief as member-secretary. The
facticite will bring to an end interference of any kind in police affairs, thus
enabling the personnel to function in an independent atmosphere. These
measures complete with the overhaul of the UPSC will oppilate the glissade and
bring back all the former gloria of commitment to merit and character to the
police. This vision though appears a dreamer’s dream because of the exercise of
machtpolitic and political unwillingness to give up its extant prise on the police,
2020 is far away to dismiss such a miracle outright as apocryphal. No
labefactation in a national life continues in perpetuum. This vision as the enfants
perdus of resurgence and the pollicitation of the revival of the Indian police are
must for all those who have police interests in their hearts.
SPECCIALISATIONS
If policing is to be effective in the years ahead, specialization is crucial. The
year 2020 must see three distinct police services with separate recruitment and
training: (1) Regulatory police or uniformed police in charge of law and order
and other regulatory duties; (2) Mainstay police in charge of crime investigation
and prevention and security and intelligence operation; (3) Social police in charge
of prevention and investigation of all social offences and implementation of
social legislation. All three wings should have their own individual organisations
up to the district level with independent Superintendents and staff as required,
functioning in tandem in much the same way as the Army, Navy and the Air
Force. The vision can be brought to reality by committed police leadership to
bring true professionalism in discharge of the policing responsibilities and
enhance the public confidence in the competence of the force by 2020 or earlier.
POLICE RUN ON MANAGEMENT PRINCIPLES
Police will do well to formulate actions and operations in line with the latest
management principles and practices following the welt geist. The force by 2020
should be able either to constitute an efficient gestalt of management experts to
advice or hire a management consultation firm for guidance. At any rate, the
police organisation of the 2020 should be a far smaller unit than now, manned
by highly committed and capable officers who are paid and looked after well
by the government.
The last three decades have seen tremendous expansion in the police force.
For lack of an organizational plan and the foresight to assess future demands,
haphazard growth has resulted. Organizational sensibilities such as workload,
unit of control, accountability functional conveniences, span of control and
information flow are never given the attention they need building an

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organisation. As a result, while a few posts in the police are overburdened with
work, there are many which have no work or accountability. The lopsided
growth of the organisation has spawned acute likes and dislikes for various
positions. Naturally, probity and objectivity are sacrificed in favour of survival
and protection of career interests. Corruption is rampant. This may not be the
sole reason for the falling standards of policing. Yet, it is a major cause. By 2020,
police administration should be able to see the vestigial retrorsum from the
prolate conspurcation.
Rationalization of the police structure to bring about a balance among the
various posts in the same rank would certainly help to ameliorate the situation.
It would also help to eliminate the wastage of government funds on unnecessary
posts. Creation of such posts to accommodate unwanted elements cannot be
tolerated in a serious department like the police. A systemic growth plan for
balanced expansion is what is called for, if the department is to meet the tasks
ahead.
LEAN AND MEAN FORCE
The piece de resistance of the policing by 2020 will be perficient performance
with minimal visible presence. This means a far more professional organisation
than now. This means far more skilled policing than now. This means better
management of the police organisation, better-equipped force, men of higher
calibre and devotion to work and more contented people manning the police
hierarchy.
The police of the 2020 will be required to shed its idée fixe for the show of
strength in place of efficient policing. The stress in future will be on lean and fit
policing. The structural deformity of the chorisis and overweight caused by
redundant posts, undefined jobs, lack of accountability, epinosic equation of
rights and responsibilities, top-heavy structure, erratic span of control,
demotivating factors, nonprofessional ambience and uninspiring leadership
must become a matter of the past by the year 2020 with the police going perforce
competitive en face gargantuan challenges from criminals posing threat to the
raison d’etre of the police and its relevance to the extant society.
RESPONSE TIME
The key to the success of the police is its response time, the speed with which
it responds to the gauntlets of the crime. Where time is a precious commodity
and a difference of a couple of seconds make the difference of success and failure
of a police operation, persistent efforts to shorten response time will get the
priority in excelsis. The thrust of the police administration of the next fifteen years
must be directed to bettering the response time as speed will be the mainstay of

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crimes and criminals of the coming age. Short response time implies improved
communication and transport network and highly motivated human resources,
ever ready to handle challenges. Outmoded communication and transport
facilities in disrepair conditions most of the time have no relevance there and
casual manpower is rather passe in that ambience. Coming years must see the
police force in the finest fettle in terms of organisation, manpower and
equipments and the force becoming a highly organized and efficient limb of the
state apparatus.
GOOD GOVERNANCE
India in its long history saw governance of all kinds, proportions and
dimensions and survived through them. It saw the worst and the best in its 2500
years of recorded history. It, like other old civilizations of the world, has worked
as the crucible of various experiments in governance. The governance and
policing in India now is based on this long experience. It is the collective will for
good governance that is lacking in India. The consequence is that the hoi polloi
suffer and the country fails to reach the height it is potential of. The besoin of the
extant India is the evolution of a collective will to have good governance. People
must pool their energies to force good governance for the country. Indeed the
job is not easy and the resistance from those in charge of the governance whose
interests lie in the status quo is bound to be hard. But, this cannot be an encheason
to leave the matter of this dimension unattended as the fate of one billion people
depends on this development. Only such a collective will can devolve truly good
governance and policing for the country.
Creation of a self-contained police machinery in place of the present mere
nuts and bolts of the administration is the cardinal need ahead. The nasty political
and bureaucratic interferences in professional policing have done no good to the
country and its police in the last six decades. Insulating the police from the vice
prise of the ectogenetic pressures and influences needs to become a reality in
fifteen years since, should the police have relevance in the governance of the
country. This is possible only by the metamorphosis of the police to an
independent body with goals and objectives perspicuously defined and laid
down. The new police have to be responsible only to the constitution through
a suitable machinery of checks and counterchecks exercised by constitutional
bodies manned by people of proven track-record in matters of integrity,
competence and other mental attributes and chosen from academic,
bureaucratic and political fields as well as public life. The change may bring a
semblance of justice and fairplay to administration and ipso facto infuse a value
system to the Indian public life and bring the fear of god to force strict adherence

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to probity and the rule of law in public life. India has no alternative to this
metamorphosis should the country survive the moral crisis and degringolade of
the national spirit, it witnessed since independence.

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