The Cuddalore district police have introduced a system to get feedback from the public on the behaviour of police personnel who are approached for various grievances.
This feedback system has been introduced at all 52 police stations including the six All Women Police Stations in the district.
Cuddalore Superintendent of Police M. Sree Abhinav introduced the feedback system with a dedicated team of police personnel under his supervision to discreetly collect information from the public on whether they faced any harassment or an indifferent attitude.
“The system started with passport verification to prevent the police from asking for tips. The public’s interface with the police is only through passport verification and police verification certificates for jobs. The team contacts the passport applicants on their mobile phones at random to get information on whether they faced any harassment or whether there was any demand from the police for money to process their applications,” Mr Sree Abhinav told The Hindu . Police stations are service delivery centres and the idea is to gauge their assessment of the services rendered, he says.
The system has now been extended to other services including the registration of FIR/CSR.
Once an FIR is registered, the mobile phone number of the complainant is automatically generated and collected from the server. The team collects feedback from the public on a form, on all issues.
The applicants and complainants are randomly selected from various police sub-divisions and jurisdictions of stations on a daily basis to enquire about the quality of service. The team alone has access to the feedback received from the applicant and complainants at all stations. The identity is kept confidential and the public too do not know the police personnel who collect the feedback.
“Though we have also received negative feedback including complaints of harassment and delay in registering FIRs, the overall feedback has been satisfactory,” said an Inspector attached to the team.
The negative feedback is directly forwarded to the SP and the officers are pulled up with a strict warning. In some instances, the personnel are transferred to the Armed Reserve and disciplinary action has been initiated against them, the Inspector added.
Mr. Abhinav said that the defence the police take on being traced for demanding money from the public is that they needed the amount to meet the routine expenditure of the stations for purchasing stationery.
“Now we have made cash available from government funds ranging from ₹3,000 to ₹7,000 for each station depending upon their requirement and supply them with stationery once every month. This system would go on, as the basic purpose is to augment the interface between the public and the police on sound and healthy grounds,” he said.
