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Police now under pressure from middlemen: Sudheeran

By Our Staff Reporter

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM June 27. Faceless middlemen driven by corruption and accountable to none have usurped the traditional role of the politician at police stations, the senior Congress MP, V. M. Sudheeran, has said.

According to him, this was the negative fallout of the experiment to insulate the police from political interference.

He was speaking on the topic, "Insulating the police from illegitimate control'' at a conference on police reforms jointly organised by the Common Wealth Human Rights Initiative (CHRI) and the Press Club on Thursday.

Mr. Sudheeran said that politicians who intervened in police functioning were at least mindful of public opinion and media scrutiny. However, the "faceless middlemen'' had little to fear from any quarter.

The policy of transferring policemen away from their home districts had caused resentment in the middle and lower level ranks. "Whether an officer is working in his home district or outside is no yard-stick to measure his efficiency or integrity,'' he said.

The MP pointed out that an official who was inherently corrupt would continue to be corrupt wherever his posting. "He will tend to be ruthlessly corrupt in a distant area where he reckons himself a stranger,'' he said.

Policemen tend to be more receptive and humane in their dealings with the public when they are posted closer to their homes and families, he said. It was high time the police evolved a coherent and transparent policy for transfers and postings.

Mr. Sudheeran said the Chief Minister's police reforms were a bold step taken in spirit with the recommendations of the National Police Commission. The reforms would be judged by its end results. The Chief Minister had restored the chain of command in the police department by resolving not to interfere in transfers and postings.

The Director General of Police, P. K. Hormese Tharakan, said that the police were committed to upholding human rights, even though it meant a dip in crime detection rates. Scientific methods of investigation need not always result in detection and the public should be willing to accept a low crime detection rate in the larger interest of upholding human rights, he said.

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