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Story of police

9 March 2004, 18:00 PM
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
By Sonia, Dhaka
9 March 2004, 18:00 PM
Sad facts. PHOTO: AFP
I thank TIB for conducting a survey on trustworthiness of our law enforcers and publishing their findings at a time when the image of police has been lowered beyond measure. Statistical findings have little surprise to offer. There is no doubt that people of all walks of life do not approve of police activities in our country. Reasons behind such a sorry state of affairs are also evident from the report of TIB. When a citizen goes to a police unit or officer after suffering some traumatic experience like being robbed, burgled, raped or otherwise victimised s/he has to pay some money to get the case lodged. Thus s/he is victimised twice for the same incident, once in the hands of wrong doers and again in the hands of law enforcers. When a victim needs some consoling words, s/he is harshly asked to pay expenses (!).

Poor salaries and perks definitely contribute to corruption. But it is the wholesale politicisation, which ate up the morale of the police force long ago.

It is revealed in the report that OCs and SIs working in metropolitan areas have to work longer hours without any scope for entertainment. I am not sure whether the report could throw any light on the rat race of getting a posting in the metropolitan police stations. Extra departmental influence plays the most vital role in posting of officers at lucrative stations. Surely, such influence is not distributed free of cost. A police reform is most welcome. But one has reasons to be sceptical about the effectiveness of such reform if our political culture pertaining to police activities does not change.

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Will TIB take the trouble of making such an in-depth study of our lower judiciary as well?