Humanising the police

The Inspector General of Police (IGP), Mr Baharul Alam's frank admission that they (the police) committed no end of wrongful acts during the previous regime at the dictates of the party in power is a statement of fact. He said these words at the Sylhet Metropolitan Police (SMP) headquarters on Saturday (December 21).  Such admission of guilt by a responsible government servant for acts done by others in the past should inspire other officials holding high positions in the government.

It was indeed a horror show in real life during the past 16 years to witness how a state organ meant to prevent crime and protect public's life and property can turn against its own people with such unprecedented vengeance! The current head of the police has only stated what people already know. But what is required of the police leadership is to prevent total criminalisation of an anti-crime government body from happening. The political governments in office since the colonial times had always been in the habit of using police as their private force to suppress dissent and opposition politics. And the police were found too eager to do the bidding of the party in government. But being servants of the republic, their loyalty should be to the state and not to any particular political government. But the police were never found challenging any order, illegal or immoral, coming from the political authority. The excuse has always been one of their utter helplessness in the face of the dictates from higher authority. But as the people of law, they cannot break law to please anybody however influential they might be in the administration. In the same manner, whenever governments change, the police conveniently pass the buck to the previous government for all the misdeeds done in the past.

However, this time something unheard of in the past has happened during the student-mass uprising of July-August when the police drew the wrath of the angry public resulting in burning down of police stations and death of some members of the police. Undeniably, those incidents of mass violence against the police led to great misfortunes to many innocent members of the law enforcement department. And their family members have been undergoing untold sufferings since the days of mass uprising for no fault of theirs. And still worse are the condition of the victims of indiscriminate police firing and other forms of police excesses committed against the street protestors. It is all part of history to draw lessons from, particularly by the police. The angry masses of those revolutionary days showed who have the real power and who they (the police) should be loyal to. Obviously, the events of those revolutionary days have made it plain that men and women who occupy the government from time to time and whom the police are seen to serve with unflinching loyalty are not their real bosses.

The police reform commission constituted by the interim government is expected to come up with recommendations so the police may exercise independence while discharging their duties without being unduly influenced by the political authority. Also, some streamlining of the service delivery mechanism would naturally be suggested. No doubt, some motivational clauses will be included to make the police pro-people.

But the most important issue here is the administrative culture of which police is a part.  The police's attitude is not different from that of the bureaucracy which is a throwback to its colonial past. Small wonder that it is inherently anti-people. Since the police work at the field level and are in direct contact of the common people, their oppressive, anti-people role is in plain sight. In fact, the entire bureaucracy is equally anti-people and oppressive. In that case, for having a more humane police, the entire administrative bureaucracy has to be humanised.

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