Policemen nonpareil

Published : Nov 16, 2007 00:00 IST

Tarique Ghaffur, Assistant Commissioner, New Scotland Yard. - PHOTOGRAPHS: BY SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT

Tarique Ghaffur, Assistant Commissioner, New Scotland Yard. - PHOTOGRAPHS: BY SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT

The life and times of two exceptional members of the U.K. police force.

Tarique Ghaffur, Assistant

ONE of the pleasures of visiting London annually is looking up my friends in the police in the United Kingdom. Prominent among my ports of call these days is the National Police Improvement Agency (NPIA) headed by Peter Neyroud, whom I have known since the early 1990s when he first came to Chennai on a Rotary fellowship. I was flattered when he chose to hunt for me through a Rotarian, all because he had read my book on the Indian police while at the National Police Traini ng College, Bramshill. Since then, it has been an enduring friendship. Peter has had a meteoric rise, from being a mere Assistant Chief Constable of the Hampshire Constabulary when he met me to now being the chief executive of the newly formed NPIA.

Until last year, he successfully led the Thames Valley Police as its Chief Constable, a near equivalent of Director General of Police in a State in India. Thames Valley looks after Oxford and its neighbourhood and geographically comes close to the jurisdiction of the Metropolitan Police in London. (Incidentally, Peter studied at both Oxford and Cambridge Universities and can therefore rightly be regarded as a cerebral policeman.)

Peters stewardship of Thames Valley, the third largest force in the country, saw many achievements in the areas of crime control and speedy response to the public. The NPIA is an innovation that brings under one umbrella man management and technology management. In a sense, Peter is the father of the NPIA, having written out its blueprint. All training institutions, including Bramshill, come under its fold. Knowing as I do Peters remarkable conceptual skills, police training in the country will witness major changes in the days to come.

The NPIA will also advise the police force on technology, especially in the areas of radio communication and computerisation, a role once played by the now-defunct Police Information Technology Organisation. The NPIA does most of what our National Police Academy, Hyderabad; the Bureau of Police Research and Development (BPR&D); and the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) do. The three agencies will benefit greatly from experience-sharing with the NPIA.

Peter works in London, away from his family, who have stayed behind near Oxford, and devotes all his time to the NPIA with a zeal and determination that few can match. An interesting piece of information on Peter: he is a great cricket lover and hops across to Oxfordshire once in a while to play in the local league.

Peter, who is in his late 40s, has visions of moving to the Metropolitan Police to bring about much-needed reforms there. When I tell him that he is bound to head the New Scotland Yard (the popular name for the Met) in the next few years, he does not protest. His eyes actually gleam in expectation, an indication that he is rarin to go and itching to prove himself as a great police leader. As he is a great admirer of India, one can expect him to offer more than a willing hand of cooperation when he moves on to take up the reins of what I consider the most prestigious police job in the world. This will be an onerous responsibility considering the fact that London is to host the 2012 Olympic Games.

Talking of the London Olympics, the man who is laying on a comprehensive security plan for the momentous event is Tarique Ghaffur, Assistant Commissioner at the Met. He is a near iconic figure in London circles. He is also widely known all over the country. We, in India, should be proud of his achievements because he hails from Punjab. He moved to Uganda with his parents early in his youth and later, following the Idi Amin atrocities, immigrated to the U.K.

Joining the police force in 1974, he served it, both in uniform and in plain clothes, in Greater Manchester, Leicestershire and Lancashire before moving to the Met in London. The results he achieved as the head of the robbery squad in Manchester after the 1981 riots are still spoken of. If becoming the Chief Constable at the Leicestershire Constabulary was a crowning glory, his nomination to the command-level courses at the FBI Academy in Quantico, Virginia (the United States), and Bramshill (the U.K.) were a recognition that he had in him the qualities required for drawing up police strategy at the highest level. Serving the Met for the past seven years, first as Deputy Assistant Commissioner and currently as Assistant Commissioner (only a Deputy Commissioner and the Commissioner are above him in the hierarchy), Tarique has made a mark as one who can effortlessly play the role of troubleshooter. This came to the fore especially in July 2005 after the London Underground explosions (7/7), in which more than 50 lives were lost and there was a threat of polarisation of the community.

The Met relied heavily on Tarique to serve as the bridge between the police and the public. His articulation and credibility as a police officer, without a trace of bias, contributed greatly to the ties that the Met forged at a difficult time with a cross section in London and its neighbourhood. Even his worst detractors if he has any at all would hardly question his image as a secular policeman to whom professionalism comes ahead of any other consideration.

The Specialist Crime Directorate of the Met, created in 2003, drew mostly on Tariques inspiration. Responsible for investigating all aspects of serious and organised crime, including homicides, gun crime, human trafficking and frauds, this directorate has brought many laurels to the Met. What impresses me most about Tarique is his willingness to associate with the private sector in order to crack down on sophisticated economic crime. This is refreshingly different from the perceptions of many officers in our country who still nurse a distrust of large corporations that are willing to lend a helping hand to fight crimes of the modern variety.

As head of Central Operations, Tarique now looks after diplomatic protection as well as security at Heathrow Airport, besides overseeing major public events in and around London. He told me recently how on one day he had to keep an eye on Wimbledon, a major concert in the O{-2} arena in North London and an international football match at Wembley, all within a radius of 20 miles (32 kilometres).

Incidentally, he has a passion for cricket, and it was exciting watching the EnglandIndia Test match at the Oval with him. His act of kindness in taking me into the security control room at the Oval and explaining how matches were supervised at this hallowed venue was a gesture that I will ever remember.

The U.K. Home Secretary recently gave him the task of security coordinator for the 2012 Olympics, a role he enjoys every bit because Tariques responsibility is one of delivering an integrated security plan, something that comes naturally to him as a person who believes in constructive team effort. It involves bringing about unison between 24 partners and advising them on what is expected of them. The smart planner that he is, he envisages a close collaboration with New Delhi because the latter is to host the Commonwealth Games in 2010.

When I was in London recently, I took the liberty of quizzing Tarique on a variety of policing issues. His responses were perceptive, pointed and candid. He believes that while the fundamentals of policing have remained the same in the past three decades he has been in the profession, the police are now undeniably more transparent and accountable than before, and he attributes this to the media, which have become an integral part of the monitoring mechanism available to the polity.

Asked about the strengths and weaknesses (Tarique would prefer the phrase areas for improvement) of the U.K. police, he said that the fact that the police in the country remained unarmed (that is, the average patrolman on the street still does not carry a weapon) was a tribute to the image of the force. Operational independence (something that is anathema to the Indian politician, who has excessive authority over the police) and a diverse composition were the other positive features of the police force in the U.K. Tarique would like to see an improvement in the polices ability to meet the challenges posed by the ever-increasing levels of externally imposed bureaucracy and demand [for police assistance].

On the sensitive issue of the growing militancy of the Muslim youth in the U.K., Tarique bemoans the fact that not much empirical research has taken place to explain extremism of the 7/7 variety. However, he pinpoints seven Ds (disadvantage, discrimination, disconnection, discontent, denial and division) as possible drivers that affect Muslim youth adversely.

This is a remarkable analysis that finds a mention when Tarique speaks at public functions or when he talks to the media. It marks him out as a remarkable professional who will be sorely missed when he retires late next year. He has many ideas about what he will do for the community in the years thereafter.

I am hopeful that the Indian police will take advantage of his knowledge and abilities, which are as much relevant in India as they are in the U.K.

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