POLICE CORRUPTION

POOR IMAGE OF THE POLICE – ROLE OF CORRUPTION AND CRUELTY

Of the various factors responsible for the image of the police in the country, two stand out prominently: police corruption and police brutality. Police brutality, being more visible, has attracted greater publicity and caused wider public concern than police corruption. But it is time the subject of police corruption was also debated in a free and frank manner for something more than the image of the force is involved: the problem has serious implications for the whole system of criminal justice prevailing in the country.

REACTION

Any discussion with police officers about it generally brings forth two types of reactions. Some of them resent being singled out for blame when all other professions and government departments are equally, if not more, corrupt. They tend to ignore the fact because of the tremendous powers wielded by the police, even lesser corruption in the force raises more popular ire than greater corruption in any other department.

A few police officers, admittedly lesser in number, tend to explain away the evil in terms of “rotten apples.” They claim that but for a few rotten apples, the basket is otherwise clean- something the public generally forgets. A few instances of corruption do not justify, they say, wholesale condemnation of the entire service.

This may be true but it too does not reckon with popular psychology. The good which the force does dies and the evil which an individual policeman perpetrates lives for ever, producing cumulative hostility in the public. That is why in any study of police misconduct, the behaviour of the individual policeman becomes highly important.

It is conditioned to a large extent by the “peer group” pressures and influences to which he is subjected within the organization. The member of no other profession or organisation goes trough the process of socialisation within the organisation as intensely, rigorously and rapidly as a policeman does. He becomes extremely “vulnerable” to what is being done by others in the department. Most studies of police corruption in foreign countries have clearly shown that policemen become corrupt in the process of socialisation in different stages of their career.

The problem of police corruption is also intimately linked with that of police cynicism. A policeman works in a hostile environment. The public expect him to do his job without giving him the most essential wherewithal to do it successfully- support and trust. The policeman, however, sees human perversity and hypocrisy in their worst forms and this has tremendous impact on his ways of thinking and behaviour. In fact, an average policeman has a much poorer opinion of the society than the latter has of him.

The problem of police corruption is neither of recent origin nor is it confined to this country. The stigma has been attached to the police right since the early days. In England, the Vicotrian catch phrase “If you want to know the time, ask the policeman” was rooted in the belief that policemen used to remove watches from the pockets of drunken revelers! The Punch of the era caricatured the “model policeman” in these words: “He moves only in the most fashionable areas…His heart- unlike himself- is constantly on the beat. His taste for beauty is only equalled by his appetite for cold beef. He is the terror of publicans on Saturday nights, but is easily melted with a ‘drop’ on the sly…”

Though the police forces in the United Kingdom have made tremendous progress since then, allegations of corruption are even now levelled against them. In early 1970, the Metropolitan Police, London was rocked by reports of police corruption which appeared in The Times. The allegations were later enquired into by Mr. Frank Williamson, the then Inspector of Constabulary (Crime), who is reported to have found that “corruption among metropolitan detectives was not occasional but endemic.”

In the USA, police corruption has been documented in many studies. In 1902, McClures magazine published a series of six articles entitled “The Shame of the Cities,” which revealed that police corruption was growing like a cancer in many urban conglomerations. More recently, the New York Times in its front page report on April 25, 1970, said that “narcotic dealers, gamblers, and businessmen make illicit payments of millions of dollars a year to the policemen.” This impelled the mayor of New York to appoint a commission, popularly known as Knapp Commission, to investigate allegations of police corruption against the city police department. The commission found corruption to be widespread and dilated on the methods used by both detectives and uniformed policemen to collect graft.

STIGMATISED

In our own country, the Indian Police Commission of 1902-03 found the “strongest evidence that the police force is, as a whole, regarded as far from efficient and is stigmatised as corrupt and oppressive.” A number of state police commissions set up since independence have also come to similar conclusions. The work of the police provides tremendous opportunities for corruption and these have increased with the rise in crime, emergence of new forms of criminality like white collar and organised crime, decline in the standards of public morality and extension of the role and power of policemen due to the enactment of so many laws to promote social welfare.

The gravity of problem may differ from country to country but the fact that corruption in some form or the other does exist in almost all the police forces can hardly be denied.

The corruption that is rampant in the police department in this country can be described in various ways. Broadly speaking, there are two categories of corrupt police personnel. They can be described as “meat eaters” and “grass eaters, to borrow the phraseology used by the Knapp commission. Meat eaters are those who misuse their police powers aggressively for personal gain and collect huge payments, generally form those who indulge in organised “victimless” crimes like gambling, prostitution or illicit manufacture and sale of liquor and narcotics.” The grass eaters, on the other hand, are those who accept payments and favours that the “happenstances” of police work throw in their way. The majority of corrupt police personnel belong to the second category.

PROBLEMATIC

How to deal with the problem? Improving the recruitment and training standards and weeding out the rotten apples are the obvious answers. Whatever the strategy, it must aim at reducing the temptation to be corrupt. This can, to some extent, be done by improving the status of the policeman. The methods of his recruitment, his salary and other conditions of service will all have to be decided accordingly. The important role that the policeman plays in society and the need to confer on him a status commensurate with that role have not yet been recognised. This is not merely a question of increasing his pay and improving his conditions of service but also of putting greater trust in him. At present, he is distrusted by all and this breeds in him a feeling of utter frustration. Unless the policeman is accorded a higher status, the profession will not attract the right type of people and the temptation to be corrupt will remain strong.

Opportunities for corruption are inherent in the police work and can not be eliminated completely. But they can be substantively reduced through legislative action. The statute book contains many laws, particularly those which relate to areas like gambling, prostitution, prohibition etc. which are difficult to enforce and which provide ample scope for corruption. It is, therefore, often suggested that such laws should be repealed. In the present Indian milieu, however, it may be difficult to take such a step.

The police being a disciplined and hierarchical organization, a proper system of rewards and punishments will be of considerable help in curbing corruption. The culprits must be exposed to the risks of detection and punishment and honesty should be suitably rewarded to make it attractive. This would require a very close and effective supervision over the work and behaviour of different ranks. In addition, it would require strengthening and improving the vigilance set-up within the department.

The objective should be to develop attitudes within the organisation which are intolerant of corruption. There are no easy ways of doing it but a determined, dedicated and an enlightened leadership can achieve a lot.

(Published in the Times of India dated August 1, 1981)