Current Scenario> Current
Indian Police System> Current Structure & Functions>
Function of the police
The functions of the police
force in India
are multi-facetted. Critics of the police force mean that the functions are too
varied and some of them should be outsourced. In that case the police force will
have time to focus on core activities like crime investigation and crime
prevention. Section 23 of the IPA lists the following functions of the police
force:
1. obey and
execute all orders and warrants lawfully issued to him by
any
competent authority;
2. collect and
communicate intelligence affecting the public peace;
3. prevent the
commission of offenders and public nuisances;
4. detect and
bring offences to justice; and
5. apprehend
all persons whom he is legally authorised to apprehend,
and for
whose apprehension sufficient ground exists;
These tasks were listed
originally in 1861, the duties have expanded and slightly changed since then and
a more recent list of duties would be:
1. Maintaining
law and order
2. Riot control
3. Crime
investigation
4. Protection
of State assets
5. VIP
protection
6. Traffic
control
Every police station in a
state is assigned an area where the police are upholding local law-andorder.
Each area is in turn divided into different beats.
Examples
of typical police duties are patrolling neighbourhoods for
security;
Solving
petty crimes; investigating grave criminal offences and assisting
the
public
prosecution; presenting the accused and bringing witnesses to the court
during
trial; serving court summons; crowd management and riot control;
protecting
important material assets like state monuments and vital
installations;ensuring physical
safety of important public persons; and directing and
managing traffic.
While the IPA
describes the duties of the police force, the Code of Conduct for the Police
(adopted in 1960) describes the responsibilities of the police personnel. The
Code is vague in its description and leaves a lot unsaid. One example is point 4
of the Code of Conduct which sets the rules for use of force. Point 4 does
not mentioned in what context and to what extent the force can be used, leaving
too much scope for individual interpretation. Point 5 of the Code draws up the
criteria for the achievement of the police force:
"The prime duty of the police is to prevent crime and disorder and the
police
must recognise that the test of their efficiency is the
absence of both and not
the visible evidence of police action in dealing with them."
However in the
light of recent high profile cases (such as the Jessica Lall case, the
Priyadarshini Matto case and the Best Bakery case) the police force has been
inefficient and even deliberately ounteracting the work of the investigation
leading to the failure of the police force according to its own definition.
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