A Dangerous Illegality

Context: Indian policing is in the dire need of policing reforms to curb the rising police misbehavior and common illegality.

Policing Misbehaviour and Common/Dangerous Illegality

• Rise in custodial deaths: as NCRB reported 853 custodial deaths between 2010 to 2018 and NHRC reported 1,636 custodial deaths.
• Administrative Inefficiencies:
• Disobedience to the rule of law, statutes, laid down processes and SC guidelines: by police stations.
• Procedural Smokescreens in the form of ambiguous encounter stories: i.e a runaway was killed in self-defence relates more to fiction than reality.
• Refusal from registering complaints: attracts punishment but since hardly anyone has been punished, the remedial section lies stillborn.
• Rise in crime rate: of 383.5 per 1,00,000 population in 2018.
• Low Police to population ratio: of 158 police staff per 1,00,000 citizens.
• It further contributes to low conviction rates and long imprisonment for poor and overcrowded jails.
• Arbitrary and biased arrests/investigations: 
• people with prior records and poor/powerless form a pool of easy pickings.
• The speed of arrest and strength of investigations are selective and in favour of rich and powerful individuals.
• Inadequate Checks and balances to police excesses: through internal disciplinary mechanisms, courts, SHRCs is more of theoretical nature.
• Lower courts are constrained by capacity: 70% undertrials awaiting their day in court.
• SHRC: understaffed and under-resourced. 
• Andhra Pradesh SHRC: no chairperson nor members. 
• Gujarat, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Kerala and Tamil Nadu SHRCs: function with acting chairs 
• Himachal Pradesh, Jharkhand, Manipur, Maharashtra and Rajasthan: have no members. 

Conclusion: Number and frequency of heinous crimes calls out for root and branch repair of the police and the many guardian agencies tasked with keeping them lawful.