Police have demands, so have we
This year's Police Week has come with a lot of new demands from the members of the force, including perks like special residential facilities for high ranking officers, business or executive class air tickets for additional IGs when touring abroad, postings in Bangladesh missions abroad and "interest-free advance" for buying personal vehicles. These demands are in addition to other demands that apparently still have not been implemented (such as increase in compensation for death or injury while on duty) despite directives from the PM. The PM from her side expressed her frustration that her directives were not followed through by the ministry.
At the outset we want to praise the police for their effective containment of terrorist activities in carrying out which they have shown extraordinary courage and professionalism.
While the police force of any country should have their demands met as long as they are reasonable and deserving, in our country, can we really say that the police force have lived up to the public's expectations? What about the public's demand for a police force who will protect their basic rights, a force they can trust and have confidence in?
In recent years, members of law enforcement agencies have been accused of terrible crimes that include custodial deaths, conspiracy to murder, protecting rapists and other criminals by not including them in charge sheets, extortion and sexual harassment. The number of such incidents, which are only the ones that made it to the media, are high enough to be worried about. We, the public, expect members of the police force to be of high moral calibre. But the reality is that the public image of the law enforcement agencies leaves much to be desired. Extrajudicial killings and enforced disappearances have only helped to make ordinary people be fearful of law enforcers rather than trust them as their protectors.
It is crucial to make sure that our law enforcers get good salaries and facilities they are entitled to in order to make them more efficient and dedicated. This is especially true for lower ranking law enforcers who should be paid adequately for the long, harsh hours they work and be given decent accommodation and other facilities. However, the demands seem to be mainly for high officials and not for the ordinary police. Before budgets are increased to reward the high-ranking officers, it would be wise to implement reforms in the police force in terms of greater accountability, transparency, fairness, efficiency (especially in proper investigation of cases) and rooting out any form of corruption. Without these reforms, merely increasing the number of police personnel and giving extra perks to the bosses will not produce the "police of the people" our PM has asked for.
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