Redefining the Civil Police Relationship: An Overview of Managing Bilateral Trust and Confidence

 Satya Narayan Sardar

Introduction

The national dailies focused on a news regarding a dual clasp between students and police on 13^th of Falgun at Chabahil on the issue of two students hit by a water tanker on the same spot two days back. The police tried to have control over the students who were trying to create chaos and terrify the commoners. As the police tried to have control over the situation, they had to use a simple force and that was blamed to have misused the authority. The students raised slogans even at Gantaghar against police.

Whoever was wrong, eventually the police came to be the target of the students because they tried to neutralize the issue. The Metropolitan police tried to have control over the chaos raised on the case and that created a fight between the students and the police. Was the clasp for revenge? Or catharsis or challenge to the authority? Obviously, to control the chaos and normalize the situation, police are moved. It doesn't mean that they want to present the tyrannical behavior nor they want to go against social norms and values. They are here to systematize and bring the situation under control so that the civilians could be able to run their routine smoothly.

This paper has been divided into five pars. In the first part I have tried give focus on the brief police history in the world as well as in Nepal.  The Metropolitan Police force was established on 29^th September 1829by Sir Robert Peen in London. That was the beginning of the police force in the world. The force was established to investigate crime and policing. The city was under terror and the concerned authorities tried to seek for the solution and the result was forming the force for security of persons and property. It was highly effective on those days to form the force. Everyone was excited regarding the formation.

So far as police history of Nepal is concerned, it was established during the Rana Regime as Milisiya, Thana Police Chauki, Office of the police Director General which later took the form of Nepal police. The formal establishment of Nepal police was done in 1952 in Kathmandu. The Inspector General of Police was Mr. Toran Shamsher Ja. Ba. Rana. This formation gradually took a grand shape in Nepal as the police force. Since then police force is working under the control of the state authority and acting as their right hands to implement any act and bring law and order in the state.

In the second part I have tried to focus on the public expectation from the police because everyone cannot be police and everyone cannot secure themselves. They need any state authority who could take charge to punish and reward as per the time demands. The criminals should be punished and the civilians should be given full confidence to live in peace and harmony. In the third part I have tried to find out some problems of police and public. Although the police were established to bring peace and harmony but we can find some events which do not fit for the police to be done. Due to such issues, there have been some gaps regarding police-public relationship. In the fourth part I have tried to redefine the needs and significance of police regarding public reach. The gap is increasing day by day and that has to be filled by any means. In the last part, I have tried to describe some more possibilities for bringing the police and public together again so that they could be able to walk together and bring prosperity and harmony in the state.

Policing History of the World and Nepal

The Metropolitan Police force was established on 29^th September 1829 by Sir Robert Peen in London. That was the beginning of the police force in the world. The force was established to investigate crime and policing. The city was under terror and the concerned authorities tried to seek for the solution and the result was forming the force for security of persons and property. It was highly effective on those days to form the force. Everyone was excited regarding the formation. Because everyone cannot be honest regarding living in the society and run their life under honesty. Some may try to create terror in the society to show their superiority. For that they try to violet the rules and regulations and norms values established for an ideal state. They challenge the state authority even in the various cases. To bring under the state rules and regulations, some force is essential. The conscious persons on those days were highly sensitive regarding bringing peace and harmony in the society. On those days, London city was developing various criminal activities. The concerned authorities were worried how to have control over it. A strong organization was essential even in 18^th century to maintain law and order which had been the public concern. In 1812, 1818 and 1822, Parliamentary committees were appointed in investigate the subject of crime and policing. But it was not until 1828 when Sir Robert Peel set his committee that the findings paved the way for his police Bill, which led to the setting up of an organized police service in London to control the organized criminal world.

So far as police history of Nepal is concerned, it was established during the Rana Regime as milisiya, Thana Police Chauki, Office of the Police Director General which later took the form of Nepal police. The formal establishment of Nepal police was done in 1952 in Kathmandu. The Inspector General of Police was Mr. Toran Shamsher Ja. Ba. Rana. This formation gradually took a grand shape in Nepal as the police force. Since then police force is working under the control of the state authority and acting as their right hands to implement the law and order in the state. The Police Act 2012 BS (1956 AD) came into effect. The Police Regulation, 2015 BS (1959) came into effect. The parliamentary Government under the multi-party system was adopted for some years which was followed by Panchayat System since 1960. The establishment of the Central Police Training Centre in 1963 was done. The role of police was focused mainly in safeguarding the interest if the ruling system. The Peoples democratic movement of 1990 reinstated the multi party democratic system. The new constitution of the kingdom was promulgated on Nov. 9.1991. The Police Reform Commission was constituted in the year 1992 and Modernization of the Police Organization started to tune with the aspirations of the people and norms of Multi-Party system. The first contingent of Police personnel was deployed in UN Mission in 1991. More than 2000 police personnel have already left their feet serving the international community in blue helmet.

Public Expectation

In every state, the security is provided by the police. They are expected to be anywhere where there is crime and chaos. Because everybody cannot be strong and go against those rioters. In that case, the presence of the police force is a most. The state forms certain norms as well as rules and regulations. The civilians cannot take weapons against those rioters but those rioters may have weapons. Not only that the public may not be allowed to use any weapon as well. In this regard, the authorized persons who can control the chaos are required. Even those rioters can be afraid of those authentic persons who have got state power to use. Similarly, everyone expects to earn and save some property for the future as well as the next generation. But they themselves cannot protect those properties. For the security as well the police force is required. To be safe and secured in various conditions, the commoners need the state security that can be given by the police. Therefore, for the social security as well as overall protection, police force is required. Similarly, to deter the criminals and make they realize the presence of the state authority and maintain the law and order in the state and provide psychological security, the force is inevitable. To make people feel secured the state has to play a vital role on the behalf of the force. Overall, the police force is required for every citizen to feel free live happily in a state. And the state authority doesn't leave any gap regarding maintaining the targeted goal.

"Role" -- this is a sociological term that allows us to talk about the characteristics of various people and things without reference to the actual people involved. An example of a role is the wheel that spins in the mouse cage. A status is the mouse. It doesn't matter what kind of mouse you put in the cage; the fact it has a wheel means that spinning is the kind of behavior we would expect in that role. Police have accumulated several roles ("wheels") over the years that they cannot shed or have extreme difficulty shedding. It's hard to exit a role. Here's some examples: (1) Unquestionable Use of Force - this role was first suggested by the criminal justice scholar Egon Bittner. It means somebody in society has to play the role of "bully" you can't talk back to - it's unquestionable or indisputable authority. Police don't have to give you any explanation or take any guff off you when they're using force or pretty much engaged in getting down to business; (2) Information Gathering - this role was envisioned and implemented by J. Edgar Hoover, head of the FBI. Although society has its national security agencies, nobody is better positioned in society, with the technology, with the know-how, and with the experience, to start collecting domestic intelligence information, if they wanted to. Police cannot help collecting more information on citizens than they have a right to know.  Information gathering has just been a natural part of their role.

"Function" -- This is another sociological term that refers to something that has survival value for society or an organization. Police have two kinds of functions: intended and unintended. The unintended functions may resemble roles and, in fact, may be the cause of them, but it's the intended functions (that police may not admit, but are only slightly aware of) that concern us. Here's a list of police functions: (1) Morals Enforcement - the oldest function in police history, shared with religion; a lot of law enforcement is about morality; (2) Class Control - it's been said that outside of Alcoholics Anonymous, there's no better enforcer of middle class values than the police. They're all about giving their best service to the upwardly mobile middle class. The rich don't need them; they have their own security. And, the police have never been useful in fighting poverty or uplifting the poor in any society. No, police are a middle class institution, and they preserve the class lines very well; (3) Riot Control - everybody knows that you don't use military force against your own citizens, that's what the police are for; (4) Order Maintenance - this is the "Woodsy the Owl" idea of "policing" your picnic area before you leave. It's the "order" part of "law & order". It refers to the nonarrest things police do, like give advice, warnings, or assist with graffiti and litter removal. The police function here is to "beautify" society, if you will. It's the basis of the modern community policing movement; (5) Safety - this is the "green cross" job of making sure that accidents don't happen. The police would love nothing better than to farm out their traffic safety duties to some other agency, but we can't seem to get those meter maids and crossing guards organized into a profession. It's only an historical accident, anyway, that the police took over traffic safety in 1911 because they came up with the idea of street lights; (6) Service - "Whom are you calling?" Who else besides the police are there 24/7 to answer every emergency or assist you with directions if you get hungry in the middle of the night. (7) Crime Fighting - This function is so closely tied up with image and ideology that it's hard to even have a serious discussion about it, but it's supposed to be neutral.

"Mandate" -- Despite what many in policing believe is the meaning of this term, which can be strictly interpreted as mission objectives or required tasks to be carried out, this is also a term that combines the idea of what the law requires the police to do with a vision of the future, as police help to bring about that future.  Probably the most important mandate for law enforcement in general is to uphold their honor and dignity, no matter what else they are tasked to do. 

"Style" -- This is a term that gets at how well a person or agency copes under stress. Later on, we learn all about individual styles, but more important is the notion of departmental styles, and how we can classify police agencies by the secrets they reveal under stress.  Style is also established by the demographic characteristics of the population a police agency serves.  Hence, we can easily say that federal policing has no "watchman" or community policing style since federal agencies serve too broad a demographic population.  Cities tend to get the police style they deserve. 

"Issue" -- This is a term for anything trans-jurisdictional. There's no such thing as a local issue. All issues are at least national in scope. C. Wright Mills in The Sociological Imagination said that an issue is a threat to mores.  I'm not a sociologist of mores, but I'd say something becomes a police issue when it involves ethics.

"Problem" -- I'll defer to Sociology for a definition of this term, but my understanding of it is that a social problem is something that people believe needs to be changed. The police problem exists when the police think it's right to do one thing, and the public thinks it's right to do another thing.

"Image & Ideology" -- The word "image" is the public relations spin that an agency puts out. It's pretty much synonymous with words like "mystique" or "aura."  The word "ideology" refers to a belief in something as true when it's actually false, or at the base of it, false. Ideologies are created by putting a positive spin on something negative. Ideologies also always rest on a lie. It's the opposite of the word "institution" because anything that reaches the level of social institution must rest on a kernel of truth, at least according to the great sociologist, Durkheim.

·                                 "Socialization & Personality" -- Socialization is the internalization of norms, when an employee takes on all the attitudes, beliefs, and values of the organization, there are two approaches to the study of police personality: (1) the predispositional approach - before coming to police work, the employee has strong core elements at the center of his/her personality, like a cabbage; (2) the socialization approach - once coming into police work, the employee loses whatever center they had, and whatever was at their core is replaced by reflections or layers of organizational norms, attitudes, beliefs, and values, like an onion.

Problems of Police-Public Relationship

It has been specified that police force is required to maintain harmony, law and order in the society. In some cases we can find that the police are lacking this status. Police are found themselves violating the rules and regulations. Whether we talk about the world aspect or the local, we can find from the history that they are involved in illicit behavior. In the name of the power holder some were and are found misusing their powers. In remote areas, police are found involving in collecting protection money, and even involved in kidnapping (the concerned persons have been penalized in the terai area). Not only that how can we forget about a rape case of a lady police officer who has charged a writ against some of the police personnel? Similarly, during Maoist insurgency, we could find many examples of illicit behaviours of police on those areas where people depended on police. In stead of making them feel of secured, people were afraid of police. That forced them to go against police force and created dissatisfaction among people.  So it has been essential to check and balance for the police force as per given.

Internal control systems can be defined in general terms as core values, processes and mechanisms through which police authorities regulate and guide the daily activities of

their institutions and confront individual acts of wrongdoing. They also offer an important line of defense against corruption and abuse in a police force and provide a key measure of police authorities’ will to hold their personnel accountable for abuse and other misconduct or inappropriate behavior and by so doing promote positive relations with the community. When effective, internal controls systems can assist in analyzing and changing the regulatory and management systems and practices of the

police to refine their capabilities and improve their performance, both in their effectiveness and ethics.

It is usually only when the police are being vilified by the press for egregious violations of human rights such as extra-judicial killing or when the victim is a prominent person that you mostly hear about their internal disciplinary systems. On those occasions the police would either dismiss such erring officers from service or quickly convoke orderly room trials ostensibly to douse public anger against the activities of its officers. While it could be argued that the number of police officers investigated or disciplined for acts of misconduct has greatly increased since information or statistics on culprits, their offences and the processes through which they were disciplined are hardly available in the public domain. The list of the individuals is only provided reactively and on an ad hoc basis when the police come under severe public criticisms for not doing much to bring its erring members to book. Furthermore, you cannot simply work into a police station and get statistics on complaints or even commendations that officers have received in the course of their work within a given period. You usually have to apply and go several times before they would be made available to you, if at all they do.

Redefining the Needs of Police

The citizens need police for the various purposes. They not only can be used for just giving the security but also for some creative works. They can be used for developmental aspects in the society and even creative phenomena. In various countries we have already seen that the police are used for road construction. If the state goes in complete peace and harmony, they can be obviously used with coordination with the people regarding various purposes. The public-police coordination will bring a core goal and it will really bring keen relationship between police and public. It will certainly develop bilateral relationship. Similarly, the police can be used in the nation building and social motivational factors. As the police are found involved in some illicit activities regarding those acts, the public should be reassured so that they could be confirmed about how to behave with the police. In some of the countries, police are used for recreational activities as well as they are used for the public awareness. They can also be used in the society regarding social building.

What more can be done?

On those areas where police have left a negative impact among people, a new plan has to be brought. Such plan should be accomplished in both police-public partnership so that the faith towards police of the public will be reestablished. Not only that whatever wrong aspects regarding state affairs have been done, those should be clearly stated even if not, under the norms and values of the police, the minimum information should be allocated. The media campaign is the essential factor at the moment. The good deeds of the police from the past till date should be brought frequently so that whatever negative impacts are there in people about them can be re-corrected.

Conclusion

This paper examined police community relations and identified structural and institutional factors that militate against harmonious and friendly relations between the police and the communities they serve. At the structural level the paper argued that the oppressive and exploitative economic, social and political system in the country created a wide gulf between the citizens and the rulers. The police enforcement of the unpopular and repressive laws enacted by rulers engenders conflict between them and the people. The high level of hostility between the police and the larger segment of the society who are needy and vulnerable should be cohered.

The involuntary nature and scope of contact between the police and the public was also identified as a major source of friction between the police and the public. The restrictive contacts between the police and citizens against the background of the country's political and economic structures contributes to or escalates mutual hostility between the police and citizens, which occasionally results into misunderstanding. The following recommendations are offered steps as that should be taken by the  government, the police and civil society groups to improve and ensure positive police community relations:

1. The country must restructure its political and economic structure towards democratizing the polity, and promoting economic efficiency and competitiveness  with due consideration for and guarantee of social equity and welfare, especially  in the provision of health, education and housing for the needy.

2. The Leadership of the police needs to make police discipline a national functional policing priority and it needs to start from the top. The importance of leadership as a driving force for culture change in policing institutions has long been identified. In  this regard, the police hierarchy should see disciplinary system as a tool for achieving their values, mission and vision. Disciplinary system can be used proactively to promote a new culture and establish minimum standards for the police as a whole. The system could then be used not only to set clear standards

for the institution but could also be used in a fair and consistent manner to remove those police members who are undermining the transformation and effectiveness in the state.

3. The police code of conduct contained in the Police Act should be reviewed. This review should seek to reduce the rather lengthy to code to size that could easily be memorized and internalized by police officials. It should emphasize the service nature of police and incorporate standards contained the United Nations Code of Conduct for Law Enforcement Officials as well as drawn inference from the more recent guidelines on the conduct of police.  

4. The police leadership needs to streamline the unusually high number of disciplinary mechanisms that presently exist in the force, as they make their work not only ineffective through unnecessary duplications but also create problems in tracking police personnel that are processed through them. Since the three bodies are involved in processing cases of police misconduct and abuse of human rights. Similarly, the tendency of successive IGPs to establish their own ad hoc mechanism for dealing with police abuse such as corruption and human rights

violation should be stopped as they create coordination problems and tend to undermine existing mechanisms. Rather such extant mechanisms should be assisted with resources and personnel to make them more effective.

5. Processes for receiving complaints should include mandatory record keeping and tracking systems to provide some protection against police efforts to dismiss or cover up complaints. Any process by which complaints are screened in order to evaluate which merit a full investigation must be open to public scrutiny to assure that dismissals are valid. Similarly the complaints process should provide guarantees for the security for the complainant against any potential threats or reprisals. The police must also make clear that they will punish any effort to

intimidate or retaliate against complainants.

6. The scope of contacts between the police and citizens should be enlarged to include social services delivery by police and regular non law enforcement related meetings should be held with communities in order to create favourable environment for public cooperation with police, in their law enforcement duties.

7. The pace and scope of the on going police reform process with emphasis on community partnership and problem-oriented policing strategy should be increased and vigorous public enlightenment campaign about the programme should be launched in collaboration with civil society groups in the country for members of the public to know what it is all about.

8. Finally, civil society organizations need to create programmes, activities and measures that will enhance partnership and cooperation between the public and police. Additionally, the organizations should empower citizens to ensure police accountability and effectiveness in their service delivery functions. Civil society groups can promote these through the mobilization of the public in support of police legitimate efforts as well as the mobilization of citizens against abuse of authority/power, brutality and violence, insensitivity incivility and ineffectiveness by police. Civil society institutions should maintain a strong monitoring, research, training and advocacy capacity on police work in the country.