Online Conference on Police Reform

Policing in South Asia has too often conjured up images of corruption, abuse of power and a wide gulf between the police and the community that they are supposed to serve. Nevertheless, “to the surprise of the police the community do want to trust them and have a police service that they can be proud of,” said Robert Miles, a former UK policeman who is working on community policing in Bangladesh. The great challenge is to build that trust, and to change police forces that have historically been seen as the coercive arm of an imperial state, to a service that effectively prevents crime from taking place.

The Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative (CHRI) supported by the Friedrich Naumann Foundation (FNF), held its first online conference 5-10 July 2010. The conference was part of the new initiative called Network for Improved Policing in South Asia (NIPSA). It provided essential reading material, short interviews by experts and most importantly a forum for a lively discussion on the topics covered.

Community Policing and Its Relevance in South Asia

One of the most contentious issues discussed was the exact definition of community policing. Some of the participants feared that it was designed to get the community do the job that the police are supposed to do. In the most extreme case this could become militia groups, such as the Salwa Judum campaign in Chattisgarh (India) where locals are armed and pressured to hunt down Maoist insurgents. In the current global situation, with the ‘War on Terror’ still ongoing, some participants felt that this would make communities more vulnerable rather than more secure.

Sanjay Patil, a consultant to CHRI, and Richard Miles both emphasised that community policing was not about policing by the community, but rather the way that policing is practiced. A good example of this was the Janamaithri Suraksha project in Kerala, India. Jacob Punnoose, the Director General of Police in Kerala, explained that in fact community policing meant that a policeman had to know his community intimately. The concerns of a police officer in this regard went far beyond solving crimes and included knowing the needs and concerns of the people that live in the area in his beat. This approach is geared to the police becoming part of the community rather than standing outside of it, and only becoming involved when a crime is reported.

Successes & Challenges

Richard Miles gave the example of Nepal where community policing had been a success despite the civil war between the royalist government forces and the Maoists in the last decade. According to Miles the essentials for a recipe for success were a “push from below” and stringent oversight by committees so that the police do not act in a political or corrupt manner. This was possible in Nepal because during the civil war there was a political vacuum, and the desire for community policing was led by the civilian population.

In Pakistan the Citizen’s Police Liaison Committee (CPLC) had enjoyed a great deal of success. Ahmed Chinoy, the head of CLPC, talked about dealing with everything from kidnapping cases (70 percent of which were resolved without ransom paid when the CPLC intervened), to extortion and vehicle and mobile phone theft. The CLPC call centre handled 3,500 requests per day.

Nevertheless it is not an easy objective to achieve as respondents from Pakistan and India noted. Ashok Kumar, an Indian Police Service officer recounted the shocking incident of a member of a Community Liaison Group who was himself beaten up. “What justice can an ordinary citizen expect when even influential people with access to the police are unable to seek redress?” he asked. His emphasis was that institutions were not as important as promoting and maintaining sensitivity among individual police officers.

All the experts agreed that it was along road to success. Patience and persistence are also necessary. Both in the UK and Canada it took decades to enable effective community policing techniques, and yet people like Miles remained optimistic about chances for community policing in South Asia. The region fulfils a basic requirement: strong communities, the trick lies in empowering them.

overview