In the aftermath of ongoing anti- CAA protests and concomitant police action in Delhi and elsewhere, the police as an organisation has been vilified and libelled. The media narrative has discredited the functioning of police, called it partial, unprofessional and motivated. The vitriolic exaggeration of police aberrations by social media is unprecedented. ‘Khaki’ which symbolises ‘sacrifice’ and ‘honour’ has been dubbed as belligerent and diabolical. Of late there has been a venomous assault on the credibility of police as an institution.

This is not to suggest that previously police enjoyed a flawless reputation, but now it has been battling allegations of corruption, civil atrocities, and flawed work culture among others. One the eve of Eid last year at the Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel National Police Academy, Hyderabad, I had gone to a nearby Eidgah to offer prayers. Huge number of people had poured in. While we were leaving through the only exit after offering prayers, a huge crowd was in front of us with almost nobody moving.

Somebody asked why the people in front were not moving. To this somebody from the front replied that the police was distributing gifts to people at the exit and that is why it was taking so long. The response was: “How come people who cheat and loot people are distributing gifts to public?” Everybody around had a sarcastic laugh. However, this was nothing compared to the current spate of viciousness against the police in the country. While it is beyond doubt that there are many issues in the working of police which can be improved upon, caricaturing police personnel and bizarre mud-slinging by media won’t improve things.

Honest leadership, positive feedback and political will can certainly undo various fallouts. As per a 2018 survey of 15,562 respondents across 22 states, the Lokniti team of Centre for Study of Developing Societies (CSDS) found that 25 per cent of Indians trust the police (as compared to 54 per cent for army). A big reason for this distrust is the lopsided narrative generated about the police by media and cinema. Even people who have never interacted with police tend to think negatively about them.

To augment police functioning, honest introspection is needed followed by concerted efforts to change things. Police is mandated with the responsibility of preserving law and order and upholding public peace and bonhomie. To accomplish this, law has given a slew of powers to police to perform these duties. However, there have been occasions when police personnel on ground have gone overboard with these powers. At ground level the police force is hopelessly ill-equipped and undertrained.

Sometimes the indifference of senior officers brings in alienation. To carve their own niche, the force on ground tends to affiliate with influential pressure groups and local leaders, seek refuge with them and act so as to fulfil their vested interests. Thus, there essentially is the issue of leadership where senior officers must own up every single person of the force, give them a sense of belonging and hold their hand before anybody else does.

It is essential to provide every new entrant to the police service with a counsellor at the beginning of his/her career. If unscrupulous people in the police department had been counselled initially, probably they would not have gone on to indulge in wrongdoings. A culture of machoism still permeates wherein it is believed that a police officer to be effective must be masculine and dominant. Qualities like being softspoken and docile are seldom seen in good spirit.

However, the roughness of tone and sulky face isn’t likely to increase the efficiency in the department. This mindset needs to change. Police can also render services to people with a smile on the face. Inducting more women in the force can help. Presence of women personnel in police stations can dramatically change its overall ambience as well as style of interaction with public. Women in the country constitute just 7.28 per cent of the police force. In Punjab, the picture is grimmer with just 3 per cent representation of women in entire police force.

As per the Status of Policing in India Report-2019 by Common Cause and Centre for Study Developing Societies (CSDS), Punjab Police is the second most overworked police force in the country after Odisha. As per the report, an average cop in Punjab works for 17 hours a day. The irregular and long working hours not only affect physical health but also contribute to mental stress among police personnel, ultimately impacting the efficiency of the force. Long working hours make a person irritable and short-tempered and damages the work-life balance.

Here we can follow the Mumbai Police in their 8- hour duty schedule for constables and ASIs. Besides the much-debated idea of outsourcing non-core functions can be done. In Punjab where we have just around 80,000 in the police, they should be utilised very resourcefully. However, on ground we see trained police personnel doing mundane and ordinary jobs varying from driving to being receptionists. As such we can contemplate outsourcing the non-core jobs of policing.

For example, there can be civilian receptionists at police stations and in driving duties, exam duties, traffic point signal duty, activities related to office work e.g., payments and receipts, housekeeping of premises, telephone duty etc. However, the more persuasive challenge is that the police leadership acknowledge the issues and take steps to overhaul the system. In a democratic set up like ours people reserve a right to express their discontent against the government as long as they don’t disrupt the life of the common man or cause damage to public property.

However, a reallife situation goes beyond this theoretical proposition and decisions are to be made in fraction of seconds in a hostile and emotion-driven scenario, when the thin line appears ‘blurred’. While these are testing times for any officer to maintain grit and patience, in the event of an aberration, no stone is left unturned to showcase entire police force as biased and corrupt. Such bogus media projection of police must stop.

Importantly, the police leadership must step forward and stand by its force and act as a beacon in face of any challenge. Attempts should be made to churn out good relations with public through community policing initiatives. To realise the dream of People’s Police, investment in good service delivery is needed so that people are less likely to succumb to lopsided media narrative and realise that police is not an alien force but is made up of people amongst us.

(The writer is an IPS officer of the Punjab cadre. The views expressed are personal)