You’ve spoken honestly; now fix police problem, Mr CM

It’s too early to say if Prithviraj Chavan is going to be one of Maharashtra’s more distinguished Chief Ministers. But he has already distinguished himself in one way: by his remarkably frank speech.

First, there was the admission to a TV channel that for the first 15 minutes after the 13/7 bomb explosions he was unable to communicate with his senior police officers. Now comes another candid statement: intelligence work in the police is hampered by the absence of able police officers. And why is that so? It’s because these posts are not “lucrative” so no one wants them.

Did he actually say that last bit? Or was that implied? Either way, it’s a telling indictment of our system that the smartest officers don’t want the smartest jobs because the perks of office aren’t good enough.

Identifying the weak spots in your organisation is, of course, only the first step for a CEO. The steps that follow try and rectify the situation as efficiently and quickly as possible so that the organisation does not continue to suffer from the same shortcomings. So now that Chavan has found what’s wrong, what will he do to set things right?

To start with, he can lobby with the Centre using the present security crisis as a handle and ask the government to implement reforms in our police infrastructure, reforms which have been suggested by various committees and which have not been acted upon for decades.

One of the reforms, if I am not wrong, is to have a fixed tenure for officers, so that they cannot be transferred to ‘punishment’ postings by ministers if they don’t do their bidding. Another is to restore the earlier system where a Police Commissioner had the authority to transfer non-performing people up to the Deputy Commissioner level. Now the state Home Ministry decides even a constable’s transfer, and many of these postings and transfers are done only when money changes hands.

Another major change that has to happen is better training and facilities for staff. Does a policeman on the street inspire any confidence?

Let’s look at the Mumbai police: the traffic policeman is better turned out, is smarter and knows his job much better than the normal constable in khaki. That’s simply because he is imparted special training. Policemen in khaki are overweight, underpaid and untrained, with very little motivation except to make money at the expense of citizens they are supposed to protect.

Both these measures won’t happen overnight. Can’t anything be done quickly? The first thing is to elevate the Intelligence department’s ranks a notch higher; obviously, officers will then want to go there to further their careers. As for constables, it is time the ‘Beat’ system, so common in advanced countries, is introduced here.

If you go to London, to give one example, do you see policemen sitting around in groups as you see here, chatting to each other or reading newspapers and basically whiling away their time? These cops have the most boring job in the world, sitting without purpose, their minds in a state of atrophy. London cops walk around in measured steps, generally in pairs. Their quiet presence is reassuring; since they move around, they could be in any place, anytime which also acts as a damper to criminal activity.

Is this a difficult thing to implement? The beat cops’ job should also include observing suspicious behaviour on their beat, talking to shopkeepers, paanwallas and the like for information to supplement their own observations.

The Chief Minister also needs to talk to the PM and the Home Minister to review the manual for VIP security. Why do policemen have to line the streets for the whole day, standing in the hot sun, doing absolutely nothing just because of a VVIP visit? Surely there are better and more efficient ways of ensuring security?

I am not a security expert: these comments come from using one’s common sense. But common sense seems to be the one thing that is lacking in our policing, and we now have yet another wake-up call to do something about it.