Police media interface is a troubled one at the best of times. Whenever there is a law and order related incident, Meghalaya Police tend to go on mute. Neither the District SPs nor the higher-ups are ready to give information on a need to know basis. The media are kept guessing on issues that the public need to know. After all the prime role of the police is crime detection and prevention and to safeguard the lives and properties of the public. True the police have to act under huge constraints but there is also the baggage of a closed police organization which has come down since the British rule where police were expected to protect the rulers. The ruled deserved no protection. That this legacy continues in a modern democracy – a free country which the colonisers had left 75 years ago, is disheartening. Why is everything that happens within the ambit of the police considered ‘official secrets’ that must be guarded with their lives?
Recently, at the police-media interface held at the DGP’s office there was a free and frank discussion about police briefings by key officials who also have a fair idea of how media operates. Following that conversation, unfortunately nothing has improved. District police officials remain reticent and are guarded about information sharing. But the Police Department cannot shy away from sharing information with the media which is the voice of the public – the messenger. The public has the right to know especially in this age of information flow via technology. The only way to remedy and refine this tenuous police-public relation is to improve disclosure of appropriate information from the police to the public. This requires cooperation and mutual understanding between the police and the media since both perform vital roles in a democratic society, with the common objective of serving the general public. Hence police and media need not have an adversarial relationship.
Just as the police is quick at disseminating news about drug hauls and arrests of the drug mafia, there should be a similar alacrity in sharing other crime news as well. Unless the media and law enforcers learn to trust one another and work together the public would not know what is going on and also how to assist the law enforcers in their arduous task of keeping the law. The media on its part should understand the legal aspects of policing, especially not to probe into matters at a time when investigation is going on and any leakage of information might hamper the investigation process. A happy balance is needed and police in the higher rungs should know the importance of communication skills and learn that art if they do not already know it. Most often the information that leads to successfully helping citizens most often comes from another citizen. A good cop knows how to communicate in order to achieve his/her ends.
