Police in disarray, need massive reforms

Around 120,000 were recruited in Bangladesh Police in 15 years of Awami League. The allocation for police increased by 433 per cent in this period. Yet, there was no effective initiative to make the police a professional force. Rather, police were used to suppress the political opponents of the ruling party in the last one and a half decades.

The organisational structure of police has collapsed due to Awami League’s excessive dependence on it. Police have reached such a fragile structure that it cannot play any effective role even after one and a half months of the fall of Sheikh Hasina in a student-mass uprising. Despite change in every top post including Inspector General (IGP), police have not been able to emerge from the torpor. Now a massive reform in the policing system has been demanded. Recommendation has come  to form the Police Complaints Commission to investigate crimes committed by members of the force, alongside the Police Commission.

Some recommendations came while speaking with stakeholders such as current and former police officials, experts and relevant organisations. They mainly came up with two types of recommendations. Firstly, the police need a massive overhaul in the system of transfer, promotion, recruitment, operation and other facilities. Secondly, a strong organizational structure is needed to make police service oriented and ensure its accountability in all aspects such as cases and investigations, arrest and conducting raids. To this end, some laws and regulations regarding police need to be updated.

Sources said manpower shortage, budget shortage and infrastructural limitations were once presented as the main reasons for police force’s inability to be a professional one. But this notion has changed in the last 15 years. In this period, a total of 83,070 posts were created in the police. A total of 178 posts were created in high-ups for BCS cadre officers. Majority of 120,000 were recruited on political and partisan considerations.

According to the public security division, the manpower of the police force was around 213,000 last November.

Allocation for police in 2023-24 fiscal years increased by Tk 177.65 billion from Tk 33.31 billion in 2009-10 fiscal years. A significant number of infrastructures were built during this period but a majority of these were unplanned. Allegations of corruption were also there.

Stakeholders say that increase in manpower, facilities and infrastructures failed to make police pro-people as appeasing the force got priority over welfare of the public. A majority of the force played a veritable role as party activists to bring Awami League to power in the last three general elections. Awami League relied more on police and local administration than on party leaders to ensure their win in elections.

Transparency International Bangladesh’s (TIB) executive director Iftekharuzzaman stressed on creating a sustainable structure of accountability to bring police out of present predicaments. He recommended forming a police complaint commission alongside an independent police commission like in the United Kingdom and different other countries. The Police Commission will work independently on issues such as recruitment-transfer and promotion while the Complaint Commission will ensure accountability on these activities.

Police headquarters have already formed eight committees for reform and fact-finding. Police headquarters’ spokesperson Inamul Haque said the committees will submit reports to IGP.

The chief adviser of the interim government has announced a police reform commission headed by former home secretary Safar Raz Hossain. He told Prothom Alo, "The commission might consist of 10-12 members including two representatives from police. We will hear from journalists, people from different professions and policemen. We will recommend transforming the police force in line with people’s expectations."

Policemen are usually posted in 16 to 20 units or work stations. Insiders say out of these 16, some 3-4 are considered ‘good postings’. Dhaka Metropolitan Police’s (DMP) crime division, detective branch and some other posts, superintendent of district police and ranges’ DIG are among the posts that are considered the better posting. Some other posts of police headquarters, Special Branch of police and Criminal Investigation Department (CID) are also considered prized posts. In the last 15 years, some handful of officers were appointed in these ‘good posts’.  

Police insiders say that posting in the places where chances of exercising power, rate of crime and businesses and industries are generally considered as more coveted. The main reason behind it is that the chance of illegal income is comparatively more in these areas. Not only cadre officers, but non cadre officers from constable to inspector crave for posting in such areas.

Police do not have any ‘fit list’ for posting in those important posts. As a result anyone can be posted anywhere at any time. Taking this chance, the politics inside the police force mainly starts over posting in these coveted areas. This politics is mainly to blame for the lack of professionalism in the police. Officers need to lobby powerful officials to get better postings. In some places, postings of police are made as per the will of influential politicians. Some officials also form a syndicate to control the whole process of transfer and promotion. They do so by establishing good rapport with influential people in the government. Sometimes illegal transactions of money become the most important factor for posting.

These are the reasons behind the existing disarray in the posting.
Option of formulation of specific guidelines is also discussed inside the police to bring order in posting. Prothom Alo talked with 13 police officers of different ranks between inspector and DIG. They suggest police need a ‘fit list’ for posting of superintendents akin to the administration cadre’s fit list for promotion to deputy commissioners. There should also be a ‘fit list’ for officer in charge posting. An officer would require specialised and specific experience to get such postings.

They also opined that it should be specified as to how long an officer can remain in OC and SP posts. Officers of all ranks would require working in all units, except for specialised units, to ensure a balance between units so that some postings are not deemed more lucrative. If that can be done, officers would be ready to work anywhere they are appointed.

Relevant people said there is almost no promotion in the upper level posts without the consideration of superiors, political consideration or financial dealings. That is why instead of becoming professional, the police members become interested in tasks that would draw the attention of political leaders. As a result, the police could not become a pro-people security agency.

That is why the relevant people recommended setting some basic yardsticks for promotions. They also stressed the importance of assessing the annual confidential report (ACR) properly.

To ensure the “chain of command”, the authority to issue ACR will have to be distributed among the inspectors, assistant police supers, additional police supers, and police supers and other upper level officers rather than keeping it confined to unicentric.

There are allegations of harassment at the police stations for a long time even for some general services. There are also allegations that the police members are unhelpful in all the instances of filing a case, general diary (GD), investigation, patrolling and conducting raids. In some cases they just harass the service seekers. That is why the police stations could not become the places where people could rely.

Apart from this, financial dealings at the police stations have turned into a custom. That is why the relevant people advised to reform all 639 police citations across the country.

Several former and serving officials of different levels made some suggestions in this regard. Those include - employing a separate team, to be led by a superior, at the district level to monitor the activities of the members of every police station. They will submit reports on inconsistencies everyday to the SP and range DIG. Besides, they will contact a certain number of service seekers everyday to find out whether there was any illegal transaction of money and recommend taking actions based on that against the accused police member.

The officials and experts also recommended changing the recruitment of constables and their promotion and training drastically.

They said half of the sub-inspectors, who work as investigation officers, are recruited directly while the other half comes from promotion of constables. But when the constables are recruited, they do not get sufficient training to work as investigation officers. As a result, when they get the responsibility without any mental preparation, they fail to play the expected role in investigations. That is why they should be prepared during the recruitment and before the promotion.

Naim Ahmed, former additional IGP, told Prothom Alo that the main work is now to restore the morale of officers by making police stations functional again. Then there should be some specific guidelines regarding transfer and promotion. Also, training of police should be updated.

With time, the types of crime and strategy to tackle these crimes have seen a massive change. Police are facing fresh challenges especially in tackling cyber crime and extremism. Although police have formed specialised units such as Cyber Crime Unit, SWAT, Anti-Terrorism Unit (ATU) and Counter Terrorism and Transnational Crime (CTTC), no specialised recruitment of people with specific know-how were made in these units. Many posted with these specialised units get training home and abroad but they get transferred to other non-specialised units later on. As a result, the training they receive goes in vain.    

Stakeholders suggest that recruitment can primarily be made in constable and sub inspector posts at first. Later the whole units can be run by specialised manpower by providing training to them. There can be some specific standards for posting in units which mainly carry out investigations.  Some also recommended recruitment of specialised manpower in units such as Tourist Police, Rail Police, Industrial Police, River Police, Highway Police and training institutes.

Most of the crimes committed by policemen are linked with bribes and illegal transactions. Other than these crimes, policemen are generally accused for misdemeanors, personal reasons and negligence in duty. But investigation is normally carried out in cases that come out in public. And it is the police who carry out the investigation. As a result, the policemen who commit crimes usually get less punishment or get acquitted.

Under this circumstance, the stakeholders recommended a strong framework to ensure accountability of police. They say the whole police force should be brought under accountability by forming an effective police commission. This commission will investigate all crimes and irregularities. Apart from visible crimes committed by its members, policemen will face accountability for every case and investigation. Besides, all members of police will have to submit wealth statements of their own and members of their families. Actions should be taken if any inconsistency is found between their wealth and income.

The issue of reforming police has been a long-discussed one. The initiatives taken by the caretaker government in 2007 were not implemented by the next political government. The stakeholders said the previous governments had either encouraged or forced the police to serve their own interests. That’s why these changes should be made by the interim government on an emergency basis. Work should be started by bringing into a process in case of the decisions which will take time to implement.

Former IGP of police Khoda Bakhsh Chowdhury told Prothom Alo that the police should be reformed in keeping with the times, and the process should be continued. However, to get the full benefit of this reform, the criminal justice system needs to be reformed. In that case, apart from the police, the judicial system and the prison management should also be revamped.