Recently, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, while addressing the DGP–IGP conference in Raipur, urged the senior police officers to transform the public perception of the police, especially among the youth by enhancing professionalism, sensitivity and responsiveness.
Background
- Colonial Model: Despite 78 years of independence, India’s police force still operates under the 1861 Police Act, which the British created to protect their imperial interests and maintain control over their subjects as the “Ruler and Subject” model.
- Requirement: Today, a democracy needs a service-oriented police force, not a force-oriented one.
Core Issues Associated With Police Service
- Ground Reality: Public trust must be earned, not simply ordered. Police stations often exhibit indifference and rudeness, making ordinary citizens afraid to visit.
- Attitude Reform: Police must adopt courtesy, patience, politeness, and respect when dealing with the public, similar to employees in private companies.
- Working of Crime: Police often refuse or delay registering FIRs, a deliberate practice of burking to suppress crime statistics, leading to serious underreporting and denying victims timely justice.
- Investigation Quality: Investigations frequently depend on coercive third-degree methods to obtain confessions, violating human rights and producing weak evidence that collapses in court, letting offenders escape and eroding public trust.
- Custodial Violence: Violence committed by police while in custody severely erodes public trust.
Way Forward
- Structural and Legal Mandate: This pillar is about ensuring autonomy and accountability at the top levels by implementing the recommendations of the Supreme Court.
- Implement Prakash Singh Directives : The government must immediately enact the seven Prakash Singh Directives in letter and spirit, guaranteeing fixed tenure, functional separation, and independent Police Establishment Boards to curb political control.
- Mandate Functional Separation: Enforce the Separation of Law and Order from Investigation wings across all states to improve the quality of probe and reduce delays.
- Leverage New Laws: Fully utilize the provisions in the Bhartiya Nyaya Sanhita and Bhartiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, especially the mandatory forensic team visits for serious offenses (punishment of seven years or more), ensuring investigations are evidence-based, not confession-based.
- Technological and Investigative Upgrade: This focuses on equipping the police with 21st-century tools to enhance efficiency, transparency, and scientific investigation.
- Enforce Digital First Approach: Make Online FIR Filing the norm for non-cognizable and select cognizable offenses to eliminate harassment at police stations and curb the practice of “Burking of Crime.”
- Universalize CCTNS/ICJS: Ensure 100% integration and utilization of the Crime and Criminal Tracking Network & Systems (CCTNS) across all police stations and the wider Interoperable Criminal Justice System (ICJS) for seamless data sharing among police, courts, prisons, and forensic labs.
- Scientific and Forensic Capacity Building: Exponentially increase investment in World-Class Forensic Labs and Cyber Units. Focus on training officers in tracing digital footprints and using data analytics for crime prediction and mapping.
- Enhance Accountability through Surveillance: Mandate CCTV-Monitored Rooms in all police stations, especially in interrogation and lock-up areas, to document officer conduct and effectively curb custodial violence and misconduct.
- Community and Attitude Reform: Reforming the police attitude is critical to rebuilding public trust—the foundation of effective policing.
- Prioritize Community Policing: Actively engage with the public through structured initiatives like Janam Maitri Suraksha Projects. This includes non-crime contexts such as youth clubs, safety drives, and school programs, establishing the police as a community partner.
- Institute Behavioral Training: Introduce mandatory, regular training modules focused on sensitivity, courtesy, patience, and politeness—shifting the police mindset from “ruler” to “service provider.”
- Improve Infrastructure and Resources: Fulfill the requirement for better manpower proportionate to the population (low police-to-population ratio is a major challenge), better vehicles, and modern communication tools to improve response time and professionalism.
- Media and Citizen Engagement: Recognize the two-way street of responsibility and leverage media for a balanced narrative.
- Promote Responsible Media Reporting: Encourage the media to act as a watchdog in exposing wrongdoing, but also to dedicate space to highlighting stories of police bravery, innovation, and good work, balancing the often sensationalized narrative.
- Encourage Citizen Duty: Launch campaigns to educate citizens on their responsibilities, including cooperating with investigations, adhering to traffic rules, and fulfilling the crucial role of court witnesses to improve the conviction rate.
About Prakash Singh Judgement
- Prakash Singh, who served as DGP of UP Police and Assam Police besides other postings, filed a PIL in the Supreme Court post retirement, in 1996, seeking police reforms.
- In a landmark judgment, the Supreme Court in September 2006 had directed all states and Union Territories to bring in police reforms.
- The ruling issued a series of measures that were to be undertaken by the governments to ensure the police could do their work without worrying about any political interference.
- Seven Main Directives Suggested By the Supreme Court:
- State Security Commission: A buffer body to protect the police from improper governmental pressure.
- Fixed Tenure: A minimum of two years for the Director General of Police (DGP) and field officers, allowing them to work without fear of arbitrary transfer.
- Separation of Wings: Dedicated, separate departments for Law and Order duties and for Investigation, as the latter requires peace and focus.
- Police Establishment Board (PEB): This board should handle transfers and promotions, removing ministerial control.
- Infrastructure and Resources: Police forces cannot deliver 21st-century results with 20th-century infrastructure. Requirements include better manpower proportionate to the population, better vehicles, communication, world-class forensic labs, and cyber units.
- Police Complaints Authority (PCA): This independent authority should be set up at the State and District levels to inquire into serious public complaints of police misconduct, such as custodial death, grievous hurt, or rape. This ensures external accountability.
- National Security Commission (NSC): This commission should be established at the Union level to select and guide the chiefs of the Central Police Organisations (CPOs) and to review security measures and coordination between Central and State forces.
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Conclusion
Police reform is an urgent need, requiring professionalism and sensitivity, and the Prakash Singh directives must be implemented in letter and spirit, treating the public as partners.
6 Dec 2025
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