All India Police Science Congress concludes with unanimous endorsement of need to reform

GANGTOK, 17 Feb: The three-day 42nd edition of All India Police Science Congress concluded here at Chintan Bhawan today. During the valedictory function of the event today, Director General of Bureau of Police Research and Development, Vikram Srivastava, presented the summing-up report and resolutions of the Congress. The Congress deliberated and discussed 12 themes in 8 plenary sessions in the three days followed by an open session and special session to finalize the resolution of the Congress.
The Director General informed that various resolutions were finalized after an open house discussion on the 10 papers presented at the different plenary sessions.
Below is a summary of the discussion and deliberation on different themes and resolutions passed:
Police Reforms:
Police functioning in India needs urgent reforms to strengthen service orientation in the process of law enforcement to meet the needs of safety, security and well being of the people, so as to be at par with the best police systems in democratic countries. Recommendations of various committee/ commissions have not been meaningfully addressed. Police leadership can propel reforms by visiting some of these recommendations which can be implemented within their own resources in their respective jurisdiction. Visible improvement in the quality of delivery of police service would then lead to generating opinion in favour of further reforms that need initiatives and support from external quarters. Police leadership should also do their best to simultaneously sensitize the police leadership about the needs and target area of reforms requiring these interventions and initiatives.
The Congress constituted a Group of senior police officers to identify issues to be taken up at the Central Government, State Government and at organizational levels and pursue at appropriate levels. Group of officers so constituted should prepare a status report on all the identified issues for this purpose.
360 degree Performance Appraisal in Police:
The performance appraisal exercise should serve as an instrument of human resource development in police and hence needs to be made realistic and meaningful. The standard parameters should be used suitable to the police working with periodical review instead of only annual reporting. The Congress felt that a quick periodical review may be made every quarter, so that suitable guidance can be provided accordingly to provide an opportunity to the officer reported upon to improve his/her performance. On the other hand, exceptional performance should also be appreciated in time. Ground level performance should be considered in totality, rather than the number of crimes reported to the police.
Comprehensive Training Policy for Indian Police:
Augmentation of training capacity and infrastructure for the police personnel of all ranks should be given top priority. The directorate of training of all States/UTs should undertake training needs analysis in order to formulate need based training modules to equip their police personnel to the desired extent. It was also resolved that in the absence of uniformity of training material, efforts should be made to standardize all training material and circulate the same to all the training institutions and hosted on the web. Careful selection of trainers considering their aptitude must be ensured. Training of Trainers programme to be planned at various Centres of Excellences. Certain aspects like, teaching of law may be outsourced. Video conferencing facilities/ connectivity need to be established between all training institutions at the national level. The Congress felt that at least 3% of the police budget should be earmarked for capacity building and infrastructure requirement of training at the central/state government levels. Besides outsourcing, use of technology for training purposes are also to be seriously considered to clear the backlog of training. 30% training allowance for all ranks posted at a training institution should be sanctioned.
E-Policing to M-Policing:
The Congress felt that the project ‘Dial 100’ as presented in the Congress needs to be considered for implementation.
Indian police has to leverage its knowledge and domain expertise to evolve the project Dial 100. We need to do pilot study and proof of concept by empowering experts amongst the Indian Police Service and give them the resources that they require rather than turn to foreign experts to implement systems that have not been proved in India first. Domain expert in police should be used to work out police modernization plans and support with resources to implement them.
Mobile policing has multiple advantages in information gathering and collation, resulting in effective and speedier detection of crimes. New methodologies are required to be adopted to deal with emerging and newer forms of crimes. Integrated communication linking computer wing [IT] structurally should be taken up on priority. All forms of capturing personnel information should include contact mobile numbers while asking for the name and address etc.
Police as facilitator to resolve minor disputes:
During discussion the Congress resolved that the initiative made by AP police in Vijayawada may also be considered by other States.
It was also felt that the resolution of minor disputes, being an important mechanism of prevention of crime and disorder, should be taken up by the police in innovative ways, avoiding the pitfalls of getting into civil disputes. The successful initiative of setting up of Pre-Litigation Counselling Forum under the Legal Service Authority Act should be replicated throughout the country.
The role of Bihar Police in referring the minor disputes within the Panchayat, to the Panchayat as is prescribed under the Bihar Panchayat Act should be emulated by the other States to strengthen Gram Panchayats and to reduce the work load of the Police.

Emerging Challenges to Cyber Security Monitoring:
The Congress resolved that experts in the field should be consulted who have/had privilege of having gone through the entire gamut of setting up of Cyber Cells and who had the experience of handling varieties of cases and encountered problems and suggested workable solution and roadmap.
It was felt that there is need to have proper Cadre of Specialists who need to be given due recognition in hierarchy to tackle cyber-crime. The Congress also suggested that in service officers should also be given due recognition/incentive after joining the Cadre of Specialists. As a rapidly evolving technical field, the regulation of cyber behavior could also be entrusted to private as well as public agencies.
New and Emerging Technology in Police Investigation [Including Forensics]:
Information relating to availability and capability of emerging technologies should be made available to the end users [investigating agencies] so that they can make effective use of modern technologies in investigation of crimes. The investigation agencies should be properly trained for preservation of exhibits for use in modern technologies and also to maintain integrity of exhibits lifted from the scene of crime.
National Forensic Science Academy needs to be established to meet the needs of trainings. The Congress felt that mobile forensic science laboratory should be made available to every district for modernization and development of forensic throughout the country. The Congress suggested that suitable amendments should be made in Identification of Prisoners Act 1920 by including the component of DNA, Bio-Metrics and Voice Recognition Technology along with the corresponding amendments in Code of Criminal Procedure 1973.
Developing Human Resources in Police- Emerging Trends and Policies:
More emphasis should be given in formulating training programme through new syllabus and new training techniques/methods. In-Service course should be made compulsory before promotion. While developing the human resource in the police the strength of police should be commensurate with the need of deployment and at the same time the police leadership should be place right man for the job at the right time.
Technology as an aid to firth Left Wing Extremism/Terrorism and Insurgency:
Available technology with NTRO could be of immense use in providing security-intelligence driven tech umbrella to forces fighting menace of Naxalism, terrorism and insurgency. Dog squads could be a force multiplier in counter-insurgency/counter-terrorism ops and can also be used to perform guard duties but over dependence on special breeds need to be reduced.
Best Practices & Procedure to Ensure Integrity in Police:
Developing best practices and procedures related to policing be developed within India and abroad need to be collected, collated and published annually at the national level and made available to State police forces.
Ways and Means to strengthen Institutional Memory in Police Establishments:
A National police information portal should be set up expeditiously to serve as a single point for aggregating and accessing all authentic and relevant information for research, policy making and practitioners. For strengthening institutional memory, record maintenance with the use of modern technology including writing and organizational history be taken up by all the State Police Forces and Central Armed Police Forces.