While appreciating the good policing attempts being made in the country, there should be a caution against trivialising the movement, Union Home Minister P. Chidambaram said.
He was speaking after inaugurating the Global Commuity Policing Conclave 2010 – a special meeting of the International Police Executive Symposium (IPES). The conclave is being hosted by the State Police.
Against the good models of community policing, like the Janamaithri Suraksha Paddhathi in the State and Nagrik Community in Assam, there are bad examples of mobilising the community to counter internal security threats, like the Salwa Judum in Chattisgarh and Harmad Vahini in West Bengal. Arming the local community against internal security threats would amount to the police abdicating its responsibility in favour of private militia, Mr. Chidambaram said.
The basics of community policing is in three main aspects – capacity building, supporting with enough funds and internalising the philosophy. Already there are 400,000 vacancies reported in police departments across the States.
Many police departments are not being effective in community policing because they follow the letter of the law and not the spirit. There is a divide between the community and police, which we need to bridge.
Along with equipping the force to match the technology used by law-breakers, there should be a system to analyse the information and intelligence that flow in, Mr. Chidambaram said.
Fear about the police should be replaced with respect, victimhood with trust and antagonism by law-breakers with obedience to law. Community policing is an exercise in trust.
Community policing should be approached with a vision beyond neighbourhood, as incidents related to the community happening outside the neighbourhood will have impact in the relations the community maintains with agencies like the police.
Also, community policing initiative should be on guard against self-appointed community leaders, who often use the system to their own advantage. Only authentic representatives of the work ethics and culture of the community should be picked to be part of the group, Mr. Chidambaram said.
In his presidential address, Kodiyeri Balakrishnan, Minister for Home, Vigilance and Tourism, said that the need to break the age-old conventions in policing is felt across the world.
As part of the Janamaithri Suraksha Paddhathi in the State, the beat patrolling has been strengthened and alert committes have been formed for coastal areas, women, traffic and students, he said.
Union Minister of State for Food and Agriculture K.V. Thomas was the guest of honour. C.M. Dinesh Mani, MLA, K. Jayakumar, Additional Chief Secretary (Home) and Dilip K. Das, president of IPES, spoke. Director General of Police Jacob Punnoose made a presentation of the Janamaithri Suraksha Paddhathi.
