Police must master communication skills and languages to enhance interaction when dealing with community problems.
Malaysian Crime Prevention Foundation (MCPF) vice chairman Tan Sri Lee Lam Thye said training in such fields was important to avoid any misunderstanding or miscommunication or claims that police were not friendly.
“They (police) must be trained or undergo courses related to communications to enhance their interaction skills when faced with difficult situations and foster goodwill.
“If equipped with such skills, police will know how to handle situation more professionally and what is required of the person who lodged the report. If will
help erase any wrong perception of the police,” he told reporters after a roundtable on NKRA For Crime Reduction at Wisma Bernama yesterday.
“Just imagine the ambiance if a Malay police officer spoke to the Chinese in Mandarin when carrying out his duties....this will certainly impress them.”
Police must also be equipped with the 4P principles — People Oriented, Protective, Performance and Proactive — when carrying out their duties as it would earn the respect of the people, he said.
“Being professional will help avoid the negative perception of the people who continue to pass cynical remarks on the police,” he said.
“We in MCPF will also invite the police to participate in whatever events or programmes we organise. At the end of the day, what is important is they must ensure that the police and the public work together, be able to have better interaction so that they can understand each other better.” — Bernama
Can you guess who would be the worst enemy of a police station in-charge, professionally? Not the notorious don in his area. It is the second inspector, or additional PI (API), who is second-in-command of the police station. The bizarre rivalry, ego tussles and clashes of interests over sharing of responsibilities are so intense that the embittered cops turn sworn enemies. This goes on to such an extent that the anecdotes of some such enmities can provide for script of an Indian sequel of 90s action flick 'Face off'.
The deep-rooted hatred for each other would not even require the director to hunt for another pair like John Travolta and Nicolas Cage to cast in the movie. The director can get some natural emotions flowing out from the same PIs and APIs spewing venom against each other. Going by last week's fracas at Sakkardara police station between senior PI and an assistant PI and other such instances of the past, the theory seems strong and durable.
Whether over sharing of credits for sound investigation or undue favours that every police station in-charge is blessed with irrespective of postings, the eternal bickering between the two inspectors are the commonest aspect in their so-called collaborative effort to run the show. The mutual contempt between the senior PI and his second-in-command sometimes attain the same passion as some celebrated rivalries like Achilles and Hector, Shivaji and Aurangazeb, Pele and Maradona, fans of Leeds United and Manchester United, , Sourav Ganguly and Greg Chappell, and India and Pakistan in everything.
"I hope it does not end up into something like what happened between Zidane and Materazzi," said a senior officer recalling the funny headbutt episode of the 2006 soccer world cup. In connection with tiff between senior PI Appasaheb Lengde and his second PI Dinesh Besarkar of Sakkardara police station, the rumour was that the cops had nearly crossed their limits engaging like Mike Tyson and Evander Holyfield in boxing ring. Senior officers, however, said this was clearly exaggeration.
Clash for domination over police station was, however, made famous by the alleged long-drawn duel between PI Ramlakhan Yadav and his second PI SC Surathkar in MIDC police station before the two had to be separated by incumbent CP Ankush Dhanvijay. "One would come and occupy the chair and throw away the other's nameplate. If one instructs someone to catch a criminal, the other would find no fault with the same person," he said.
In the past, constabulary of the Kalamna police station too faced same difficulties. "Both would ask for money from the constables. We worked out a plan. Whenever one would ask us for money, we would say that the other had already taken it," said a constable with a hearty laugh.
Another point of clash between PI and second PI is the police station jeep. While senior PI exercises unquestionable possession of it, his second is often left to travel as pillion on a constable's bike. "The senior man gives vehicles to send his children to school or his wife to market but not to me," a second PI once told TOI. "He has a TV, AC and a cushy chair. If I ask for a jug for water, he looks at it with suspicion," said another second PI cursing the senior.
TOI gets to hear the other side too. "He goes to all the black-marketers and asks for favours. That is why I am not able to maintain law and order," was what a senior PI said of his second-in-command. "I know he is after my chair and so keeps on passing messages against me to CP," added he.
Guru, gyan, and gang. These three Gs-so necessary to turn an accidental offender into a hardcore criminal-are readily available in prisons. India's criminal justice system may pay homage to human rights but it fails entirely in bringing the delinquents on paths of reforms.
Several senior police officials feel that going behind the bars is a sure way for a first-timer in crime to turn into a professional criminal. The contamination of younger minds by hardened criminals in jails just does not allow them to correct their ways.
The jail experience made a former gangster, thrice held under stringent Maharashtra Control of Organized Crime Act, so convinced about his 'deep-rooted' knowledge of crime that he actually walked up to the podium at annual fest of Nagpur University's law college and delivered a lecture on criminal justice system!
Most rags-to-riches stories in crime world are more or less in the same mould. A hungry street urchin who is once caught stealing bread walks out of a swanky car when he graduates to being a 'bhau' after spending many summers in jail. Now the trembling juvenile delinquent of yore is a tough-nut to crack in any kind of interrogation. He also knows the loopholes in the system to catch the cops on the wrong foot and sue them for human rights violation.
The crime records of the hardened criminal (bhau in Nagpur, bhai in Mumbai) in city's underbelly are soon replete with cases of murders and 'half-murders', as the police slang refers to the offence of attempt to murder. The bulge of crime record matches the rotund stomach that strains the buttons of white shirt he may don over white trousers and match them with a pair of white shoes.
Beware! The all-white dress code is enough to threaten the city intellectual about imminent transition from his bhaigiri to netagiri. "What else can the Election Commission do but to issue him the certificate of the winning candidate when there is no complaint of booth capturing or rigging," asked a senior officer.
The eyes, reddened by equal portions of meat and malt, behind black goggles of a 'bhau' have seen more bloodshed in his real life than his reel life counterpart. His way up the crime ladder is chequered with 'andar' and 'bahar' (in or out of jail) with regular monotony. Every time he went inside the jail, he emerged wiser.
Former city police chief PKB Chakraborty, who retired as director general of police, said that many thoughts had been spared and theories promulgated on reform systems but in reality not much had changed. A senior crime branch cop said young criminals found it difficult to return to the mainstream once they taste easy money of crime in wrong company.
Not all graduate to being a 'bhau'. Many take shelter under one, providing him with muscle-power (similar to manpower in corporate world). The bhau accepts 'suparis' (contracts), his chelas (followers) meet the deadline. The assignments for eliminating a rival, settling disputes, getting a place vacated, acting as a villain in a love story, recovering bank's loans, making an uncooperative occupant toe the line of a builder and such chores are done by the Bhau's chelas against regular supplies of money and malt.
These smaller fries, once or twice booked for smaller offences, make easy cut as hoarse callers who can abuse on phone to intimidate someone. "Nowadays, every criminal is a broker or dealer of real estate or is hired by a section of builders to act as bodyguards or threaten others," said an office
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