Book on police gives analyses, offers answers
By Tina Verghese
and Shiny Philip
Bangalore, Feb. 13: Policing the Police, a book written by Superintendent of Police Praveen Kumar gives an insight into the Indian police set-up and analyses the problems of the department, with interesting illustrations from the field.
“Lack of transparency insulates the police and policing from the public. So someone from within the department should take the initiative to identify the problems and work towards solving them,” said Mr. Kumar.
A training seminar in Delhi inspired him to write policing for a new Age, that was published in 1992. Following this, many seminars for the police were conducted, but they were all basic and routine. The police was reluctant to probe within to find out what was wrong, and complacency was eating into the police force, Mr. Kumar said.
Mr. Kumar’s book is a departure from the routine, where he not only analyses the problems, but also suggests solutions.
“ Valucs are going from bad to worse, and before the police force dies a slow death, some action should be taken, “he said. But blaming the system is futile, because the values are created by the people at the top, he said.
Mr. Kumar blames the UPSC for not selecting and recruiting the right people at the higher levels. Mr. Kumar disagrees with the argument that there are no model people with unimpeachable characters.
Other maladies like corruption, misplaced loyalties, and unprofessional attitudes stem from this drawback, according to him.
Most often people join the police force with the intention of being upright and making a difference. The idealism soon vanishes with peer pressure and the nature of the job culture,” he said.
Mr. Kumar said he does not expect changes to occur overnight. “But I hope people will soon wake up to the reality and implement my suggestions, “he said.
posted by praveen # 3:10 AM 
