The roots of police excesses

Improving the working and living conditions of the police, who work under tremendous pressure, is the antidote to police brutality.

AS if the trauma of handling Katrina and the charges of desertion and non-performance levelled in the aftermath of the catastrophe were not enough, the New Orleans Police in the United States is in fresh trouble over proved brutality against a hapless citizen. On the night of October 8, a retired elementary schoolteacher, Robert Davis, was repeatedly punched and kicked by a group of two policemen in a busy intersection at the city's famous French Quarter, an incident that was captured on video by an Associated Press cameraman. The 64-year-old African-American, according to the police, was arrested for drunken behaviour in public. A Police Superintendent, however, later admitted that the force used on the hapless victim was "unacceptable".

The offending policemen were suspended without pay. They will also face prosecution, along with a third colleague who assaulted the cameraman on the spot. The fact that the victim was a black and the aggressors were white has added dimensions to the incident, which has been squarely condemned by many. Observers, who are knowledgeable about the New Orleans Police, are not surprised at the latest misconduct, because the force has a history of brutality and corruption.

The police in many U.S. cities, including New York and Los Angeles, carry this baggage of racial animosity against the minorities, particularly the African-American community.

Readers will recall the infamous Rodney King episode of 1991 in which a black motorist was badly mauled in downtown Los Angeles, after he allegedly refused to stop on being asked by policemen to submit himself to a search. This incident was also caught on camera, and it led to riots twice, first immediately after the incident, and again in 1992, when the accused policemen were acquitted by court.

The history of New York Police Department (NYPD) is also pockmarked by several similar incidents of gross abuse of human rights. In fairness to city administrations and the police leadership all over the country, it must be said that there have been serious efforts to bring down police misbehaviour towards minorities. But these have yielded only limited success. The inescapable reality is that police departments in the country are predominantly white. At their hands, the black believe, they will not receive fair treatment. This is why genuine efforts to push up African-American representation in the police have not been effective. The average member of the group feels that getting into the police, he will be ill-treated by a white superviser. This is the dilemma that faces the policymakers in the U.S. who want to enhance minority confidence in the police, and at the same time reduce scope for brutal behaviour.

The inclination of policemen to use excessive force while interacting with crime suspects, and occasionally even with law-abiding citizens in situations of conflict is almost universal. We recently saw the gunning down of an innocent Brazilian in the heart of London after he was wrongly suspected of being part of a terrorist group. While many believe that this was a genuine mistake arising from miscommunication between members of a special anti-terrorist group formed after the blasts on July 7 this year, some human rights activists in the United Kingdom who look upon this incident as a direct reflection of a penchant for callous treatment of the public.

We, in India, are only too familiar with numerous instances of police excesses that reveal a low regard for human rights. The Bhagalpur blindings in Bihar and the Rajan episode in Kerala several decades ago showed the police in extremely poor light. The recent Tura (Garo Hills) incident in which a group of students were killed in police firing is possibly an example of excessive police reaction to a public agitation. What makes the situation in India qualitatively different from that in many other countries is the use of questionable and unlawful force within the confines of police stations against crime suspects for extracting information. While the open display of a tendency to indulge in needless violence in our streets is condemnable, such highhandedness away from public glare and at police facilities that are out of bounds for non-members of the police is nothing short of barbaric.

Policemen, especially those in the Indian Police, need to be convinced that using force against those in their custody is downright immoral and indefensible. What is appalling is that there is a substantial segment in society the world over that condones police violence as an effective means of maintaining order in society and keeping the crime rate low. When you go into the genesis of police misbehaviour, I would rate this as a dominant factor that encourages a majority of policemen to employ questionable methods of operation without any inhibition or fear of the law. There is precious little that any one of us can do to check this dangerous philosophy of policing that places premium on the use of third degree. What, however, we can do is to fine-tune the two-pronged policy of deterrence and education to prevent policemen from resorting to methods that are not sanctioned by law or by the canons of civilised conduct.

Deterrence against public servant excesses is built into the criminal law of the land in every country, and such law strongly discountenances police violence, especially where the personnel involved cannot justify it in the context in which it was employed. For instance, in the New Orleans episode there is no evidence that Davis had a weapon with which he could have harmed the policemen who overpowered him. There was also nothing to suggest that he offered resistance to being arrested. Under these circumstances, the attack on him by two policemen seemed a total abuse of authority. The prompt departmental and criminal action initiated against them is a step in the right direction. Unfortunately, such swift response comes only when the instance of misconduct has triggered a public controversy or when it is so blatant that it is bound to become public knowledge within days. Under other circumstances, normally, even when a police supervisor gets to know about an instance of police misconduct, there is a sub-culture within the organisation that favours a cover-up, in the mistaken notion that morale within the department will otherwise suffer. It is this line of thinking that helps many a delinquent policeman to go scot-free and encourages him to repeat his misdemeanour.

Distressingly, this offensive sub-culture is often fostered at training institutions themselves, where rookies are subjected to sermons that glorify the use of third degree and are administered by a few of the faculty who had had a dubious field reputation for cross-cuts in criminal investigation. This is where lies the importance of being extremely choosy in inductions into the instructor corps of training academies. Here, I must record my satisfaction at the quality of people selected for the National Police Academy (NPA) in Hyderabad where Indian Police Service (IPS) officers are trained. I am not all that sure of State Police training schools that continue to be the dumping ground for officers with an unsavoury past. Naturally, these elements convey the wrong message to those under their tutelage and who are just starting their careers. Not many in the political executive or the higher echelons in the department devote a thought to the deleterious impact of bad hats being accommodated in the training faculty, all because they are not wanted elsewhere. I would pinpoint this indifference as an important reason why a young recruit grows over time to be no respecter of human rights.

If the Right to Information Act, which is an important piece of legislation, has to achieve its objective and not be a mere ornamental document, public vigilance on matters of police appointments and police procedures should be sharp. Demanding information on the rationale of policies and specific postings of officers to crucial positions requires courage. It may not also always help to ferret out the facts underneath a questionable posting. It will, nevertheless, bring about the much-needed transparency in civil service personnel matters and unwillingness on the part of a government to resort to placing officers in sensitive public positions just because it is expedient to do so.

HUMAN rights bodies have a major role in combating police brutality. The record of the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) in India has been reasonably satisfactory. It must be remembered, however, that its charter is enormous and its resources are severely limited. Given these constraints, the NHRC has given a good account of itself. Police officers, with a proclivity to use unlawful violence against the public, are aware that an NHRC probe could land them in difficulties. But, I will not exaggerate the impact of the Commission in toning down police deviance. I would be happier to see the arrival of an agency that is devoted to deal with complaints against police misconduct, especially the manhandling of the public on unsustainable grounds. I have in mind machinery similar to the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) in the U.K., about which I have already written in these columns. This will be a statutory body with the right to look into complaints of police misconduct. This move may not bring about a sea-change in police behaviour, but will add the much-needed deterrence to police deviance. I know that many policemen in the country who are already hostile to the NHRC will react bitterly to the founding of one more machinery to look into their conduct. I firmly believe that honest and humane policemen will have nothing to fear from an IPCC. This is the experience in the U.K. I do not know why it should be different in India.

Ultimately all change in police perceptions vis-a-vis the public will have to be in evidence at the police station, which is the cutting edge. There is no point in the Director-General of Police and his immediate deputies alone being convinced that all police conduct will have to be lawful and civilised. They should concentrate on the message somehow percolating down the line. The mechanics are difficult, but they are definitely not beyond being devised. Success in this important mission will follow thereafter.

One important aspect of the situation is often overlooked. Policemen misbehave with the public or with crime suspects not because they enjoy the experience. Far from it, only a small number of them are near-psychopaths who derive pleasure beating up persons who come into contact with them. The majority in the police force are as civilised or humane as many of us are. It is ultimately work pressures and the poor state of their work environment that bring out the devil in them.

A massive effort to improve their working and living conditions that will automatically raise their self-esteem is the antidote to police brutality. Where the government has a will, this transformation in police personnel management is easy to bring about. Until then, we will have to live with scandals that will continue to shake our faith in the police force as a guardian of society.