Does India need a Private Police Force?

Does India need a Private Police Force? I don’t know the answer to this tricky question. Let’s start by answering a simple, related question - If you were to have a small theft in your house, or were to get involved in a minor road accident, would you feel comfortable to call the Police? And once the Police arrived, how confident would you be that the Police will be honest and professional? 

Fortunately, my interactions with the Police have been limited to minor car accidents in India, UAE and US. In both UAE and US, the Police arrived within a minute, looked at the facts, spoke to both parties, determined whose fault it was, gave the relevant paperwork to both parties and left – the whole process was pretty smooth. I cant say the same of the experience in India though.

Another question we need to ask is – if you were not the average blog reading individual that you are, but were from the poorer and more vulnerable strata of the society, how confident would you be in dealing with the Police in India?

Are we discussing an irrelevant issue here? Definitely not. This is seen by what our well respected National Security Advisor Mr. Ajit Doval had to say after the recent incidents in Delhi – “Police should be seen by the common man as "credible and fair" and if it fails to enforce the law, democracy fails.”

India is the largest democracy, but if it has to become the best democracy, it must have the best police force too (and an efficient and effective Judiciary too - I will reserve that topic for another post). According to a study, the top 10 countries with the best police forces in the world in descending order are : England, Canada, Netherlands, France, Japan, USA, Australia, Germany, China, Italy. India is nowhere in the list.

Another completely different aspect to consider: If we are not happy with Air India as a Government Airline, we want the choice to fly any of the other private carriers. If we are not happy with BSNL, we want the choice of going to Airtel or Reliance for telecom services. By any stretch of imagination, definitely, Policing Services are much more basic and fundamental and important than the luxury of a mobile service or air travel. Yet, we don’t seem to be bothered about the bad service we get from our Police. Don’t get me wrong, the Police have their own problems and justifications such as low wages, inadequate workforce, long working hours, political interference etc (I will reserve that discussion and ways to reform the Police for another post). Many of you will remember that several years ago, all airports used to be manned by local police. Some Airlines, Airport Authority of India, and some officials in the Government were not satisfied with the services being provided by the local Police. They asked for a better service and it was delivered in the form of the CISF, a much more professional service provider. The bottom line is, if you ask for better service, there is a chance you might get it. But if you don’t ask at all, you will definitely not get it.

Let’s get back to the topic of Private Police force - should we have one in India or not? I know I have not made a conclusive argument for the same, but let’s assume for a moment, that we do need one - How would we go about it? I will very shortly describe two scenarios - the first one is an idealistic and possibly impractical one, and the second one is something that is probable with some luck and government support.

Option 1: The likes of Ratan Tata, Rahul Bajaj, Nandan Nilenkani, Azim Premji etc get together and create a not-for-profit organization to oversee and run this private police force. This force has government support and legislative basis. It can carry guns, but only with rubber bullets. It can make arrests if it witnesses a crime taking place, but has to hand over to the Police within 4 hours. And so on and so forth.

This may never happen, so lets go to the next best option…

Option 2: The same folks mentioned above and leading citizens create an organization which acts as a watchdog on Police. Their personnel will not have any guns or arrest rights, but will have cameras and the right to follow the police. Whenever any call is made to the 100 number, an additional line to this organization's call center is opened, and all the conversation between the citizen and Police will be recorded. They will have access to the FIR databases and can review progress of each and every case (while maintaining confidentiality, data privacy etc). This will force the Police to be professional and transparent. 

And there could be several variations to the above mentioned. My intent here is not to provide a final solution but to open our eyes to the possibilities available and to really challenge the status quo - We don’t need to be satisfied with the current level of service we get - we should demand better and we will get better.

Lastly, let’s take a brief look at what is happening elsewhere in the world. Even in India, the number of Security personnel employed by private Security agencies has substantially increased. In South Africa, the private security personnel number is double that of regular police force. In England, experiments have been made successfully for private policing in some parts of London. The US has the concept of private police in some states; University of Chicago has its own private police force for its University Campus. This concept is not new, we just need to figure out how relevant it is for us in India. 

Think about it and please share your comments and criticism

I will try to end all my posts with a Prediction – this is my favorite pastime – I smile when they come true, I laugh at myself when they don’t😊

Common Sense Prediction:

By 2030, many residential areas / townships / societies in India will have a private police force. One of the determinants of a desirable residential township to live in would be the provision of a reputed private police force. This would be similar to the provision of other amenities like club memberships etc. For sure, safety will be given its due importance, much higher than other luxuries. The private police force referred here will not be the usual private security agency providing guards at the gate. This will be a highly trained and professional force with ability to investigate and solve electronic frauds etc.