Petty crime across the country has got out of hand. There needs to be a crackdown

A day does not pass without stories of chain-snatching and car robberies making the front pages. Thanks to increasing traffic in the country, there are far too many emerging stories of road rage which involves high levels of violence. One of the major reasons for this is the lack of initiative by the police in prosecuting crime. Worse, with few changes to the juvenile justice, many petty criminals are using children for dirty work. The only way to combat these problems is through better and smarter policing and also by allowing local police forces to have some levels of autonomy from State control. India’s police forces still follow a command structure set-up that vests all power in State capitals, which in many cases are several hundreds kilometers away from events. It is nearly impossible for the local policemen to be brought to book for non-performance. Several States also have politicised police recruitment to reward particular communities, as a result policing has failed in its main task of maintaining justice across all sections of society. This is particularly pronounced in the northern and eastern States of the country. Even in the southern States, local police forces are often hostile to those who visit from outside the State. The concept of the third-degree continues to prevail among police forces across India despite clear violation of human rights. In fact many ‘crime’ shows on television, far from condemning violence, condone it and in many cases glorify and justify violence. There is also an overwhelming feeling among the public that the police forces are corrupt and that there is no justice for the common man. The police forces only work for the rich and one is not cynical when they say that there is an iota of truth in this statement.

All of these factors have led to a complete and total breakdown of trust and confidence of the public in police forces across the country. What might happen as a result is the encouragement of vigilantes in our society and the normalisation of mob justice, if caught a petty thief is almost always beaten up by the public. Most of the lynchings that have made the news in the past few months are almost always because the public has lost faith in the police. With police and judicial reforms, the latter, particularly in the lower courts and the criminal justice system, being stalled for decades, this problem has exacerbated.  The experience of the Goods and Services Tax (GST) has shown that the federal system in India can work towards improvement of the country. The Centre and States along with the higher judiciary have must come together towards solving the problem of policing. One hopes that the Government will not look at the increasing rot in the police system with apathy but initiate reforms soon. Because the rot in the system will hollow out society and we are not exaggerating this risk.