PUBLIC SAFETY ECOSYSTEM

There is criminal justice system which we all are aware of, whether it works in silos or at cross purposes, it is difficult to say. What is finally delivered is there on display, depending on whatever side you take, you will reach to some judgement. More often than not, the whole blame will put at Police’s doorstep. Fortunately, there is structure, duties, responsibility and legality around which it is built. Somebody has raised a point that Police works in a Public Safety Ecosystem, in the wake of rising crimes in New York. Can we fathom out in any manner a public safety ecosystem in this country? We would be at our wits end even to locate even a nebulous framework to it.

Black lives matter for sure but the Police’s dignity also matters. Denigrated to levels unimaginable, there has never been a time where a professional community was declared professional untouchable. Award the harshest punishment to the criminal in uniform but don’t taint the force to a level that it can either not perform or would lose interest to perform. The sound of fury was so strong that generally vocal Police top brass went into the silence of the dead and political leadership got into acrobatics, that they are extremely familiar with. That the gun lobby has immense impact on policing in the US is a known fact. Remove the gun and see the change. From the arrest procedures to perpetual climate of mass shootings will witness a radical change. The system would get humanised.

This is one indication of the contours of the Public Safety Ecosystem. The ones who impact the most are nowhere to he seen. The Invisibles we can call them. That the US intelligence agencies still work with highest levels of professional commitment, ethics and integrity is a tribute to the legacy they come from. The US President had left no stone unturned to discredit them in the four years of his Presidency. Is this the Public Safety Ecosystem in which the professional Police is supposed to deliver? Not only in India but in other countries too there are areas which have become a no-entry zone for the Police. The Naxals have for long challenged the public safety ecosystem and not only the Police. The ambush on the Congress convoy and loss of prominent leaders as they traveled through Darba Ghati Valley, in the Sukma area of Chattisgarh in 2013 is sad tale of our Public Safety Ecosystem.

The battle still rages there. The Vikas Dube saga seems to the epicentre of both the Criminal Justice System and also the Public Safety Ecosystem. It’s like the hacker of the Cyber world. The Police declining to give true evidence in a killing of a political leader inside the Police Station is a plot which even crime thrillers would be scared of picking up. On the other end of the spectrum, we have a lady Constable disciplining a political brat in Gujarat in the life taking COVID-19 times, finally having to resign from her job. The Supreme Court judgement to reform the Police has remained in a Trishanku stage for nearly one and half decades by now. Decadence seems the natural path ahead. Nonetheless, Policing can’t stop.

STRONG ARM OF THE STATE OR A WEAKLING!
Sanjay Sahay

Social discipline will finally be our saviour.