Cops favour authoritarian mode8217; best 8212; Study

CHANDIGARH, Oct 8: A majority of the police personnel 70 per cent regarded the authoritarian mode as the best-suited style for public d...

CHANDIGARH, Oct 8: A majority of the police personnel 70 per cent regarded the authoritarian mode as the best-suited style for public dealing. Also, very few personnel perceive themselves as community servants, while a majority saw themselves as law enforcers.

These are the highlights of a theme paper on the quot;Existing Scenario of Policing in Chandigarhquot; which was presented by Neerja, senior research fellow of Institute for Development and Communication, at the quot;Workshop on Community-Police Interface: Agenda 21quot; organised here today.

The study also found that there is general lack of awareness among the public about community-oriented schemes such as Community Oriented Policing Scheme COPS and Help for the Aged Persons Scheme HAPS. COPS is an quot;unnecessary evilquot;, it was observed.

According to the paper, a majority of community members also reinforced the quot;enforcerquot; functions of the police, while another 31 per cent considered police as a source of nuisance and harassment.

It also found that the police were not adequately trained to tackle marital disputes. Community members 85 per cent also revealed discontentment over police response to issues related to the youth. Police personnel consider migrants a major threat to the law and order in the city. The paper also listed organisational obstacles such as political interference, corruption, lack of resources and prejudice being felt by female police personnel. The workshop was attended by police officials, social activists, academicians, senior citizens and student representatives. Organised by IDC and Police Officers8217; Institute, the workshop aimed at evolving strategies for community-police interface and to formulate an agenda for 21st century policing in the city.

The city police came in for a lot of flack at the hands of the participants, particularly for its quot;toughquot; stand on migrants and its general behaviour and attitude. In his inaugural address, Punjab University Vice-Chancellor M.M. Puri said it was time for the police to change its role from quot;law enforcersquot; to quot;public servantsquot;. SSP Headquarters Ajay Kashyap hit out at the quot;one-sidedquot; approach of the courts. He also deplored that the low-ranked police personnel did not have a palatable status.

UT Senior Superintendent of Police C.S.R. Reddy stressed the need of registration of migrants after a couple of speakers questioned the UT police policy of asking migrants to register themselves. quot;This is not only for migrants but for everybody; all tenants, even in the posh areas, have to register themselves with the police,quot; Reddy said.

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DSP V.P. Singh admitted that police training was obsolete and police lines was considered a punishment posting. Newly elected MP Pawan Kumar Bansal suggested that the role of the police in property disputes should be minimal to avoid the nexus between police, politicians and criminals. Pramod Kumar of IDC opined that there is a need to have a police high on accountability and low on authority, while the reverse was happening. Adviser to Delhi Police, P.S. Bawa, stressed the need for changes in the attitude and behaviour of the police force.

quot;They will have to do with the syndrome of dealing with crime and criminals and must look at the problem of a citizen,quot; he said.Others who spoke on the occasion included former MP Satyal Pal Jain, Prof Jitender Mohan, Gobind Thukral, Prof S.L. Sharma, J.G. Jolly, Sherry Sabharwal and Rajesh Gill.