By HH Mohrmen
“The Police Department is basking in false glory, believing in the wrong narrative that the HNLC is a spent force and the number of militants has dwindled. The outcome of the two incidents is more tragic when police personnel deserted their vehicle and even abandoned the arms that were in their custody.’’
It was not very long ago when the State Police realised the need to improve their relationship with the public. Till sometime in the late 2011 or early 2012 the Police did their job of maintaining law and order and keeping crime at bay. During that time this scribe wrote an article of the need to improve police- public relations in the State. Subsequently on June 21, 2012 the Social Work Department of St Edmunds College, Shillong along with LIFCOM of Meghalaya Rural Development Society (MRDS), Shillong organised a seminar on the theme Police- Public Relationship.
Fear of the policeman
This scribe was asked to speak on the occasion along with Vivek Syiem who represented the Police Department. At the time, I reminded all present that young people in the state have grown up fearing the police. The fear of the police is instilled in the minds of the young ones the day they begin to understand the difference between good and evil. For example if a child makes a mistake, the parents or the elderly members of the family would advice him or her to behave or else they will call the police. The children were made to be afraid of the police; they looked at the police as someone who would enforce good behaviour in children.
Taking a leaf out of my speech, Vivek Syiem remarked that perhaps this fear of the police started since the British rule when they had personnel in the police station called Darogas. Darogas used to be fierce looing officer with a long moustache. In fact he was paid a special allowance to wear the moustache. The Daroga is meant to make people fear the law and the longer the moustache, the dearer the allowance that the government paid the personnel. This dissuaded the general from having anything to do with the police. Things have changed now. The new approach is to ensure that people respect the law and not be fearful of it.
Since those days the police have made many changes to improve police-public relations. There were police stations which arranged for students from the local schools would visit them. Similarly other programmes to bring the public closer to the police were arranged by the Department. Of late more efforts were put in by the Police Departments in the different districts of the state such as opening up its own Facebook page to disseminate necessary information from the Department to the public. So much was done to improve the image and public relations but has the relationship actually improved?
From fear to distrust
No doubt the efforts are not wasted and there are improvements in police-public relations, but a lot more needs to be done by the Department to improve this one important aspect of their service. Police need to improve policing work from being someone who is waiting for the public to make mistake and then punish them, to being a friendly policeman in the neighbourhood, trying to prevent crime. Punishment and issuing of challan is not the only way to ensure that a citizen does not commit the same mistake. The need of the hour is to instil in the public the need to respect the law.
However, the public also have learnt to distrust the police. Again this is inculcated in young minds in their growing up years. The challenge today for the police is that public don’t trust the police and that makes policing a much more difficult task. If the people that the police are supposed to serve do not even trust them, then how can they even start serving? The police need immediate image rebuilding. They need to win over public trust. They need to improve their image in the public perception from being somebody that the citizen avoids meeting to being friendly police personnel. They need a paradigm shift in their approach. It is imperative for the Department to reinvent the image of its personnel from that of a fear-instilling and suspicious policeman to a friend of the public.
From suspicion of
police to hatred
How has the image of a policeman fallen from someone that people cannot trust to being a target of hate? The Government is to blame for the fall from grace of the police. There are aspects of policing which make people hate the police. One such feature is when Government engages policemen to check overloaded trucks on the highway. Everyone knows that it is the place where money exchanges hands. Police stations, police outposts on the entire stretch of the highway have personnel and sometime even private citizens and Home Guards to collect money from passing trucks.
In fact, a posting in these locations is the dream job of every policeman, irrespective of rank. It seems like collecting money from the trucks has become part of police work in these stations and outposts and the public too have learnt to live with it. The public too are now oblivious of what is happening. They turn a Nelson’s eye to what is going on in these police stations and roadside check points. Neither do the media see the forceful collection of money from the trucks as an illegal act that needs to be challenged. It has reached a point where as the saying in Pnar parlance goes, ‘dea sarom da uwa peit ïa uwa eit,’ meaning that the person who sees someone defecating in the open is more ashamed than the one who does it.
That the Government allows this to happen in broad day light only emboldens the police to continue this daylight robbery. This has drastically eroded the public trust and respect for the police. That police regularly collect money from the trucks has showed the state police in a bad light. The police have themselves and the Government to blame for this loss of face.
The two recent incidents – one in which the former leader of the HNLC was killed and the IED blasts do not augur well for the Police Department which is already suffering from a public trust deficit. The two IED blasts which happened at two different locations in the state prove beyond doubt the failure of the State Intelligence agency. The police department are basking in false glory, believing in the wrong narrative that the HNLC is a spent force and the number of militants has dwindled. The outcome of the two incidents is more tragic when police personnel deserted their vehicles and even abandoned the arms that were in their custody. These obviously are signs of a force which has lost its self- respect; a force whose morale is at its lowest ebb. If this is not a fit case for the police to retrospect, then when and what will compel them to do so.
Regaining public
trust and respect
The Police Department needs to reimagine itself and restore the pride of the khaki. Right now some police are embarrassed to even wear their uniforms. The police needs to gain the respect of the public and as Billy Jean King said, ‘trust and respect is something you earn, not something that is given.’ How police force will regain the trust and respect of the public is something that needs meticulous deliberation. ‘Do unto others what you want others to do to you’ is the golden rule taught by all the religions in the world, hence if the police are to gain respect, they at least need to respect themselves.
From Police to Palm oil
Oiling or greasing the palm is associated with illegal exchange of cash. The Palm oil story in Meghalaya has raised many questions in the public mind. Why this sudden fascination for palm oil here? The State Government’s pliant attitude to the central government dictate is a sign of weakness. Just because the central government has a scheme to promote Palm oil production does not mean that it is good for the State. There is only one reason to protest the proposed Palm tree plantation for Palm oil production. It will only encourage monoculture and monoculture kills biodiversity. Without biodiversity the future of the world is at stake.
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