The “Friends of Police” Movement in India A Blueprint for Community Policing
| Author | Prateep V. Philip |
| Published date | 01 April 1996 |
| Date | 01 April 1996 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/0032258X9606900206 |
| Subject Matter | Article |
SUPERINTENDENT
PRATEEP
V.
PHILIP,
IPS
Principal, Police Training College, Madras, India
THE "FRIENDS OF POLICE"
MOVEMENT IN INDIA
A
BLUEPRINT
FOR
COMMUNITY
POLICING
The Rationale
Across the globe, the police represent the white blood corpuscles
of
the
body politic. The police as a mechanism of social control and a sub-system
in the body politic constitute the internal defence of society to detect, fight
and control the enemies (visible and invisible)
ofthe
public and society at
large. The latter are becoming more numerous, more dangerous, more
insidious and more difficult to detect, apprehend or punish. They are
highly mobile and not confined to State or national boundaries. The ever-
increasing rate of crime and violence, international terrorism, narcotics
smuggling, assassination of national leaders, bombing of crowd centres in
different States all present agrowing challenge to the police force,
worldwide.
Unfortunately, despite these tremendous challenges, the police today,
in virtually every nation and State, are isolated from friends and foes alike.
The police force in general suffers a problem of not
just
a no image or low
image situation but a highly negative image among the public at large, in
the minds of the leaders, in the media, as well as in their own ranks. The
general image of the police - a legacy of earlier times - is that it is a blunt-
edged instrument to perpetuate and perform the will and whims of the
powers-that-be. Complaints of police torture and custodial violence have
further accentuated the negative image. An overall lack
of
mutual trust,
respect and confidence between the law-using public and law-enforcing
police prevails. This sometimes surfaces and erupts into open hostility
between different sections of the public and police. At the best and worst
of times, this gulf between the police and the public hampers and hinders
the functioning of the police when facing the growing challenges.
The police also fail to distinguish between the vast majority of law-
abiding people and the comparatively smallernumber
oflaw
breakers who
have to be dealt with with an iron hand. The irony is that though the police
exist for the sake
ofthe
public, they work in a vacuum
oflack
of goodwill,
lack of information and feedback and a general lack of cooperation.
The Rodney King episode of police brutality and public relation in the
USA goes to show that the phenomenon of police isolation and police
antagonism is global. Hence, there is an urgent need the world over for
aggressive social marketing of the police.
The
Solution
Such an all-pervasive, overpowering negative image of the police force
126 The Police Journal April 1996
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