In the midst of charges of custodial deaths, lackadaisical police investigation and high level of political intervention, there is a revelation that the Odisha police have finished the worst among 22 States in the all-important index of perception of police independence.
What should be more disquieting for the State police is it scored negative value in public perception of police letting the law taking its own course.
Such horrible public assessment about the Odisha police, that doesn’t augur well for the image of an institution of police in Odisha, was brought to the fore recently by the recently released report Status of Policing in India- 2018. The report has been published for first time in the country by well known NGO Common Cause and Centre of Study for Developing Societies (CSDS).
As per index prepared by Common Cause- CSDS, only a mere 3.1 per cent citizenry in Odisha feel State police is independent in discharging its obligations; in contrast a high of 9.8 per cent view the State police here as not at all independent and a whopping 40.4 per cent feel not much independent State Police.
Overall, with over half of surveyed people in Odisha casting their dice on police not eing independent in functioning, State figured at the bottom among 22 States in the country. Odisha scored a negative value of (-2.4) in the index faring poorer than UP, Bihar, West Bengal.
Significantly, the report identified ruling political party, powerful economically and senior insiders as the string pullers of State police here. Nearly 3 in 5 surveyed in State blamed politicians as the number one string puller, which was followed by senior insiders (means police officials) and economically affluent groups. This is an eye-opener for society as it emphasises the urgent need to implement quickly the police reforms enunciated by SC.
Significant here is the finding of the report that puts Odisha among bottom-10 States in country where level of negative perception about police is high in public. This is quite overwhelming as in this context the crime control looks daunting for the Odisha police when people-oriented policing has been flavour of effective policing worldwide. The reason: a high of 35 per cent are dissatisfied over police’s investigation of a crime vis-Ã -vis of around 22 per cent putting their faith on police investigation in Odisha.
When trust of citizenry is pivotal in crime reporting, disquieting fact is when in Odisha people have high-level of trust on senior police officials (read as IPS officers), the trust is very-very poor when it comes on IICs and other local level police officials. The survey puts Odisha at number 3 in country when surveyed people expressed trust on senior police officials.
Distrust’s side-effects: 59 per cent parents in Odisha are averse to send their children to police stations even if their wards were victim of any crime.
Other irritating pointers: Odisha in bottom-5 in disposal of cases by police and court index, bottom-10 in police infrastructure index, bottom-5 in prison data index (means weaker section prisoners exceeding their populace).
However, Odisha tops country in police diversity (good gender and community representation) index.