It is intuitive that the first statement from the recently-appointed Director General of Police, Assam, Kuladhar Saikia, is that he would establish a research wing to study the emerging trend of crime in the state. At long last someone has hit the nail on the head. Without super effective research it is difficult for police to know where they should be pulling up their socks.

As journalists we are often witnesses to how evidence gathering happens at a scene of crime and we wonder if the exercise would result in anything at all. And then we start comparing our police to those we see in western movies and begin to believe that nothing will ever work for us.

In Meghalaya the conviction rate is a measly five per cent, which is only one per cent above Manipur. Reporting a crime, therefore, becomes more of a routine affair than the expectation that anything will come out of it.

Look at Assam and Meghalaya and the series of rapes of minors in recent times. Then there have also been a series of petrol bomb attacks in the capital city of Shillong. In Assam, crime has taken on a whole new meaning. And the police are nowhere near finding the culprits. Arunachal Pradesh is no better. Rape has just become the commonest crime witnessed in this largely tribal region. While society is also responsible for some of these social crimes, like rape and molestation, the law also needs to ensure that speedy justice is ensured so that the deviants are deterred from repeating such criminal acts.

Often, the public is left to wonder if the intelligence branch normally called the Special Branch, the Criminal Investigation Department  and those in the Forensics Science Department actually work in tandem. Every incident of crime in our cities is marked by exposure, furore and a quiet demise. The public forgets it, the police are on to another crime and only the victims and their families are left to lick their wounds.

Then the next crime happens and the cycle repeats itself. Meanwhile, public confidence in the policing system dips. Politicians indulge in bluster and grandstanding that “the culprits will be found,” but no, the culprits are never traced much less punished. Even those who have killed and burnt individuals alive and lynched in full public view some years ago are still out there somewhere having the last laugh. But that is not surprising.

So why is crime detection and rate of conviction at an all time low? Mainly because of shoddy investigation! Even when charge-sheets are filed they are ridden with holes and are blown to pieces by a smart criminal lawyer. Recently the chairperson, State Commission for Protection of Child Rights, Meena Kharkongor, rued that there are at least 400 cases of rape against minors pending in different courts.

Police in Meghalaya have tackled militancy without the involvement of the Army. This is a rare feat. Hence it shows that some policemen have given their best shot when it mattered. But perhaps they are a diminishing breed. Policing today is just another job, a profession; when actually it requires special skills and an acumen that is not everyone’s forte. A policeman’s mind is supposed to be sharp as a whip that enables him to think on his feet (please note that the words he/him are gender neutral here).

Policemen should be able to take the stress that the job involves and above all be dedicated to the task. Alas! There are policemen in Meghalaya who have no qualms about owning coal mines in the names of their immediate family members. Isn’t that a conflict of interest? Doesn’t that compromise their policing?

Ironically, police are also hyper-sensitive to criticism. One reason is because they feel they are on the job 24×7 with little public or state support. But it is also a fact that for decades now, policemen across the country have been appointed not because of their special capacities, which merited them their jobs but because they paid money for their appointments. Those who have done so know it and know that they are doing a poor job and are just biding time but, meanwhile, making hay while the sun shines.

A few IPS officers have been exemplary but they are a diminishing breed, unfortunately. Others have simply slipped into a comfort zone and whether they produce results or not they still carry home a handsome pay packet. Quite a few also have their political affiliations and serve their political masters like their personal butlers. This is the bane of policing in Meghalaya!

So what do the public want from its police force (which is paid from the public exchequer)? They want to see crime prevented through a series of interface with local communities who should actually be their eyes and ears. Gone are the days when police officers were visible on the streets and in the localities. Today they are pushing files and have become so insulated from the real world that they only hear what is reported by their junior colleagues.

And most of those junior colleagues don’t have their ears to the ground. If they did they would have been able to prevent many crimes before they are committed. It is demoralising for members of the public when criminals get away with acts of arson, murder and a range of other crimes even as police are clueless about who the perpetrators are. This gives deviants the upper hand and they continue with their dark deeds.

There are of course some systemic problems such as the archaic laws framed in 1861 with few, if any, subsequent modifications. Philosopher Thomas Paine had famously said, “Societies exist in an eternal now. That something has existed for ages tells us nothing new about its value. The past is dead and the living should use their powers of analysis to sweep away existing arrangements when necessary and begin the world anew.”

Paine even suggested that laws should expire after 30 years, so that each new generation could begin anew. And look at our policing system. The men in khaki are trying to solve the problems of the 21st century using methods of the 19th century!

The police need to remain in step with technology and be constantly trained. But politicisation of the force, corruption and criminalisation of law-enforcement services and the lack of internal checks and balances has made the police force impotent. Investigative capabilities are poor and sub-standard. Sometimes it is painful to see standard operating procedures being flouted while collecting evidence at a crime scene. Of course, things are exacerbated by the Indian criminal justice system itself, especially during the prosecution stage and while delivering judgment.

Unless the police selection procedure is strengthened and training on basic responsibilities, laws and investigative processes are better designed and professionally implemented, we will be left with a structure that is not aligned with the responsibilities it must shoulder.

Several state governments have violated the seven directives of the Supreme Court in 2006, following former IPS officer Prakash Singh’s public interest litigation. These directions address core issues like transfers, tenure, separating the investigation and law and order functions of the police, unwarranted influence or pressure by state governments on the police and mechanisms to deal with complaints against the police. If only these directives were implemented policing would have improved. I was shocked to learn that some states, like Nagaland, have not even complied with the SC directive for setting up a State Security Commission, which would have insulated police from the state’s political machinery.

There is also something to be said about credible leadership. After all, the police are trained to obey orders down the line. If the top is creaking the bottom cannot be robust. That would make the supposedly invincible pyramid collapse. In a democracy, the police are accountable to the public; not to the government. But that public needs to be informed, alert and engaged and not remain silent critics. We are fortunate that militancy is on the decline in the region. That should have freed the police to focus on crime per se.

We the people need to ask what is ailing the police in our states and having asked that we need to call attention to their acts of omission and commission.

The writer is Editor of the Shillong Times and can be contacted at patricia.mukhim@gmail.com