Police Introduction

Introduction

The capacity of police to both prevent and provoke conflict is increasingly recognized. Although some policemen have been displaying extraordinary courage and even sacrificing their lives to the call of duty, other heinous crimes. The police force can potentially play a vital role in providing the much needed security environment for peaceful social, political and economic development. A well-resourced, well-trained, professional and accountable police is vital to improving the quality governance and bringing about greater public trust in the state. On the other hand, a poorly maintained police force that is also misused for both partisan politics and criminal ends will lead to further deterioration in law and order and internal security environment. In Pakistan, unfortunately, citizens grievances against police brutality, highhandedness and corruption are fairly common. Given its colonial tradition, repressive culture and lack of public trust, the police enjoy little credibility among the general public.

Not surprisingly, the issue of police accountability remains a point of concern in Pakistan, given the excessive powers and discretion in the hands of police officers. Accountability is vitally important with regard to police officers because of their powers to use coercive force in enforcing the law. Effective accountability is needed to transform police behavior, based on a deep-rooted culture of repression, into a service-oriented role and to promote mutual confidence between police and the public. The success of police requires public cooperation and support, which is not possible without credibility and faith in the police accountability system – that is still lacking in Pakistan.

 

In the present liberal-democratic era, societies all over the world are engaged in developing and strengthening mechanisms to monitor and make pubic service organizations, like the police, duly accountable. In order to deal with this most critical aspect of administrative efficiency, modern societies have introduced accountability mechanisms for Police Departments comprising of Public Safety Commissions, Magisterial/Judicial institutions and Internal Accountability controls.

In original scheme of things under the Police Act 1861, the Police Department constituted two distinct structures: inspectorate and actual policing in the district. The Inspector General was assisted by several Deputy Inspector Generals (DIGs) of Police, each assigned a range of 3 to 5 districts. The DIG exercised “a general supervision over the District Superintendents in his range, and they were to look towards him for advice, guidance, leadership and co-ordination of police work within the range. As head of the district police, a District Superintendent was made responsible for all matters relating to the internal economy of the force, its management and the maintenance of its discipline and the efficient performance of all its duties connected with the prevention, investigation and detection of crime.”  This inspectorate system gradually collapsed after independence as the police institution became increasingly centralized.