Noida horror and grassroots policing

This case has thus brought into focus the need for the effective management of urban sprawls which we will inherit in even larger numbers in the years to come. Given the trend of metropolitan isolation, where neighbours are reluctant to pry into each other’s private affairs, a more sensitive and pro-active policing network which can support the margins of society is called for. Without such interventions, our islands of prosperity will be pocked by ghettoes of crime and transgression, allowing the space for social criminals — like domestic help Surendra Koli alias Satish in Noida — a free hand in the neighbourhood which appears completely oblivious of the nefarious happenings going on literally in its backyard.

Anti-social activities and small crimes are the precursors to more heinous acts, as witnessed in Noida. An effective criminal justice regime would be one in which every single report of crime from the public is taken to its logical conclusion. Had the police pursued the disappearance of the first child reported a year and a half ago, social criminals living in the safe sanctuary of bungalows would have been denied space and courage to ruthlessly carry on with their outrageous acts. The poor status of the residents denied them the power, both political and economic, without which it is apparently not feasible to pursue the law and order machinery in the country. The rapid turnover of the station house officers in the area — five in an 18-month period as is evident from the suspensions — also substantially contributed to allowing the serial killers an unhindered run.

There is a need, quite evident in this and similar cases, for policing which can empower the margins of our metros and prevent victimisation of people due to the vagaries of urbanisation. Grassroots policing should entail greater involvement of SHOs and beat constables in the surveillance and patrol of lanes and by-lanes. They should be providing genuine comfort to the citizen through sympathy and empathy, rather than becoming cogs in the reporting and recording of crime. The police chain of command should be able to seamlessly monitor the happenings on the ground without subjective reports from subordinates.

A seemingly simple solution is automation of the process of registering FIRs, so that people are not denied their rights and the local police cannot get away with an ostrich-like approach. This would also provide the law enforcement hierarchy an independent mechanism to monitor the pulse of crime on the ground. A series of analogous recordings in a locality can act as a trigger for the hierarchy to react, preventing the SHOs from turning a blind eye to successive criminal acts. Police call centres, where citizens can record their complaints more freely without having to go through the dehumanising experience of visiting a police station, is another measure which needs consideration. The Chinese call this process ‘informatisation’. A country which prides itself on its information technology prowess can empower its citizens at the grassroots through a crime recording network, thus making the police bureaucracy more responsive to developments on the ground.

The writer is a security analyst