Daily Times

In all societies, police organisations occupy an important position in the engagement between governments and their citizens. Indeed, police forces around the world have a monopoly over the use of legal force, which gives them a special responsibility in terms of ethical and legitimate conduct. Police action has to be performed according to the highest professional standards. This, in turn, gives politicians, administrators and police managers a dominant role in monitoring and developing the quality of policing in all aspects.

At the same time, the task of the police is a difficult one. Many countries wrestle with economic inequality, political disagreement, industrial disputes, sectarianism, poverty, injustice and urban and ethnic tensions that may give rise to clashes between police and citizens. This is more so in fragile states or countries that have ethnic, religious or separatist strains. Pakistan has faced all these menaces from the day of its inception. In Pakistan, this may lead to aberrations where the police act as the long arm of a repressive government. This may encourage cultures of impunity, which are associated with extreme cases of human rights abuse. These can include disappearances, unlawful killing, torture, brutality, verbal abuse, rudeness, or abuse of authority. Authorities may be reluctant to hold officers to account, and there may be a failure for victims to seek redress; in fact, there may even be public acceptance of police misdemeanour.

Police personnel are not super humans; they cannot resolve or remove the underlying causes of social tension and civil unrest. When these underlying causes are not satisfactorily addressed, policing can assist in maintaining a form of social order characterized mainly by a relative lack of civil unrest. However it will be a social order dependent upon repression and injustice rather than on consent, respect for democratic values, and delivery of social justice.

The police cannot resolve or remove the underlying causes of social tension and civil unrest. All they can do is maintain the social order, albeit one based on repression and injustice, rather than on consent, respect for democratic values, and delivery of social justice

Police ethics are important because: “Given the nature and far-reaching effects of police tasks and power, integrity in public service is even more important for the police, who derive their social legitimacy from citizen’s confidence. That is, both the citizenry and competent authorities in a democracy must be able to place their confidence and trust in the integrity of the police system, which, as the body charged with maintaining the law, is one of the most important institutions for protecting the integrity of governance, business, and the community”.

The diversity is quite considerable, for instance when we look at police accountability systems. It has been observed that these differences bring a lot of ambiguity and questions to police actions. In reality, it is difficult to set a universal standard when it comes to ethics. Existing codes of ethics, however, use similar wording when referring to core values of policing. The values for police are integrity, fairness, honesty, impartiality, trust, pursuit of excellence, loyalty, compassion, freedom, accountability, transparency, social responsibility, discipline, and self-constraint.

The main duties of the police are to preserve tranquillity and law and order; to respect the fundamental rights and freedoms of each individual; to prevent and combat crime; to provide assistance and services to the public. In order to support and enhance the legitimacy of Pakistan, they must be responsive to the needs and expectations of the public and use the authority of the state in the people’s interest. Police officers must achieve these objectives by upholding the law, by acting in compliance with domestic law and international law enforcement commitments, and in practice, they must show commitment to the rule of law. Police professionalism and integrity are essential ethical values, particularly in view of the fact that the police are endowed with the monopoly of violence. Protection and preservation of life must be the highest priority. Police accountability and transparency mechanisms have to be buttressed by sound reporting and management procedures that can be publicly scrutinized.

In Pakistan, police is completely under the control of the political class and the bureaucracy. They have wielded this power so long that it has had an intoxicating effect on them. Having become addicted to using the police, for certain purposes over and above its normal functions, they are not letting this power go out of their hands. This type of culture is prevalent in our country. The nation can no longer afford a politician’s police and it’s time for people’s police.

The police force is far from efficient, it is defective in training and organizing, it is inadequately supervised, it is generally regarded as corrupt, oppressive and it utterly failed to secure the confidence and cordial cooperation of the people. As we are aware, there is a strong need to reform the police in our country. Across the nation, they face allegations of corruption, inefficiency and citizen harassment.

Pakistan is lacking the trend of research in all fields, particularly ‘Crime’. The newly established government is interested in bringing reforms to the police. The existing structure and system of police in Pakistan is the legacy of the British and is not acceptable in the current era. To restructure the police, the government must do comprehensive research before they implement any policies, and they must also remember not to emulate the police models of other countries, because we have different norms, values, culture and circumstances.

Some recommendations for the government are as follows: 1) The need for proper infrastructure for police stations. 2) Health facilities should be provided to police officials, like the ones offered to army officials (CMH type hospitals). 3) Education facilitates for the children of police officials, as given to the army officials (like FG Schools, Army Colleges etc.). 4) Duty hours should be reduced to increase efficiency. Shift system should be applied appropriately. 5) There must a centralized database for criminals and their various crimes. 6) The concept of community policing should be introduced. 7) Criminologists, ex Judges, and retired police officers should be hired to conduct an analysis of various crimes and ways to reduce them. 8) Police officials must be equipped with the latest technology gadgets. 9) Merge all the police units like Dolphin, SPU, and Muhafiz etc in to one unit. 10) There is a dire need to restructure the promotion method of police officials as well.

The Police system can be more effective, productive and transparent by implementing these recommendations as soon as possible. All these recommendations cannot be functional if the political class keeps interfering in the work of the police.

The writer is PhD Scholar, Media and Crime and author of different books on International Relations, Criminology and Gender Studies. He can be reached at fastian.mentor@gmail.com

Published in Daily Times, August 28^th 2018.