Principles of Policing

The police play a very important role in a democratic setup of government. They must win the
confidence of the people. The principles underlying policing in a free, permissive and participatory
democracy may be summarized as follows :-

1) To contribute towards liberty, equality and fraternity in human affairs;

2) To help and reconcile freedom with security, and to uphold the rule of law;

3) To uphold and protect human rights;

4) To contribute towards winning faith of the people;

5) To strengthen the security of persons and property;

6) To investigate, detect and activate the prosecution of offences;

7) To facilitate movements on highways and curb public disorder;

8) To deal with major and minor crises and help those who are in distress by holding public grievance
redressal meetings periodically every month.

Significance of Police in Civilized Society

The role of police is very significant in a civilised society especially in the field of administration of
criminal justice. Police has been responsible for the enforcement of law and maintenance of order in
the society. Police in modern days not only does the task of prevention of crimes and detection of
criminals but also welfare works like help in the observance of traffic rules, control of crowds in
public meetings and fairs, help the fire brigade and flood rescue parties and help public in settling
minor disputes. Thus, police is viewed as a 'Conscience keeper of Society'

Functions of Police
Police plays a prominent role in society by performing the following:-

1) Prevention of crime The main job of police is the prevention of crime. It is the primary duty
of police to reach on the spot of occurrence of crime, no sooner the information is given to it
and to take necessary steps to prevent its occurrence.
2) Patrolling and surveillance One of the important functions of police is patrolling as a watch
and ward duty especially in urban area under surveillance, dossiers and watch charts are
kept in each police station.
3) Arrest of offenders Police can arrest a person without warrant in cognizable offences and
with warrant in non-cognizes offences. It is for the help of administration to keep law and
order in the society.
4) Investigation and Enquiry into offenders Investigation and enquiry are also one of the basic
duties of police after recording the FIR. All investigation and enquiry works from part of the
job of police whether an offence is committed under IPC or in any other special laws, where
police are empowered to undertake such responsibility.
5) Interrogation of Offenders or Suspects Police can interrogate all the persons on whom it
relies to be connected with the commission of crime in order to find out the fact of the case.
 6) Search and Seizure Search and seizure is a part of the investigation to be carried on by the
police. Such search and seizure should not be unreasonable and should be carried on the
accordance with law. Search and seizure can be conducted by police with or without a
warrant.

Problems Faced by Police

The following are the problems that police are confronted with:7

1) Lack of people’s cooperation in crime detection and apprehending the offender due to fear of
possible harassment at the instance of police officials.

2) Lack of sense of social responsibility among people is responsible for the failure of police in
controlling the crimes.

3) The criminalisation of politicians provides undesirable protection to professional offenders and a

lot of pressure on police to drop the proceedings against the criminals.

4) Even the courts look with suspicion at the evidence put forth by the police.

5) Higher police officers use the services of lower cadre police for their personal and household
works.

The police in India cannot tackle the problems of developing the society effectively with their
multifarious activities. The mounting problems of law and order and increasing incidence of violence
have badly shattered the efficiency of the Police Administration.

Criticism of Police
In view of the tremendous work due to the variety of functions such as trapping of criminals,
investigation of the crimes, control of traffic, action against obscene literature or films, assisting civil
defense as well as fire-services, to protect national as well as private property, person of individual
etc. imposed upon it and the harassing attitude of police officials, with public, has incited a lot of
criticism against police and about its working process. Some of the main criticism against police in
India is as follows:

1) The investigation work in criminal cases is not done properly by the police. The investigation of
the criminal cases is widely handicapped and provides abuse in the absence of massive use of
scientific instruments.

2) The wide discretionary powers are vested in the police

3) The police sometimes resort to extra-legal methods during the course of investigation of crimes.

4) The prevention measures taken by the police to prevent crimes become very harassing
sometimes.

5) The delay by police in reaching the spot of the occurrence distorts the situation.

6) The image of police among general public is so ugly that common man does not come forward to
render any cooperation with it.
Causes of Failure of Police in India
In India, police has failed to achieve its objective fully. The causes of failure of police are:10

1) Misuse of discretionary power by police during their duty such as arrest without warrant, search
of a house or place without any order etc.

2) Oppressive attitude is another cause of failure of police system in India. The attitude shown to the
public during their duty such as torturing the prisoners, firing on the mob, attitude shown by the
police while filling the FIR are some of the example of oppressive attitude of police.

3) Corruption is also a major reason for failure of police system as tendency of earning money
illegally or accepting gratification is on peak in the police department.

4) Lack of Cooperation by Public is another major reason for the failure of police system. The reason
behind is that the relationship the police and the public is somewhat stained and the people are
ordinarily scared of police. They always prefer to avoid the connection with the police.

5) Human Weakness is also considered as a reason for the failure of police because police are also
human beings. They too suffer from human weaknesses. They too have bias and favouritism. They
too are greedy and work for mone