Founder of Friends of Police hopes to change the
attitude of the policeman
Change
challenges us but challenge changes us. When I joined the Indian Police
Service, I set myself after a lot of thought and introspection one mission:
attempt to humanize the police.
Over the
years, the hope has grown in me and a lot of other police officers that it is
possible to bring about the change, even if the odds against it seem to be in
the realm of the impossible.
Hoping
with courage:
The author (in picture) believes that “the basis of courage is hope and hope
cannot be carried to fulfillment except through courage.”
But, I
have always believed that “it is the “Im” in impossible that makes the
impossible possible.” The first step to realizing hope is to imagine that it is
possible and then take tiny baby steps towards it.
As a
young police officer when I survived with severe injuries the world’s first
Human Bomb that assassinated the former Prime Minister Shri Rajiv Gandhi, I got
letters telling me that it was a dramatic confirmation or divine intimation
that I needed to accomplish something substantially positive in my career and
life.
On that
traumatic night, the fact that a VOP ( a very ordinary person) – a common
citizen - came to my assistance as I was carried to a jeep, inspired the
thought in me later that untrained and unpaid citizens can be relied upon to be
Friends of Police.
Two years
later (1993), as Superintendent of Police Ramnad District I announced the start
of a new initiative worldwide, the Friends of Police (FOP) movement. A year
later in July, 1994 I requested the Hon. Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa, in the
presence of the entire Cabinet, the bureaucracy and the police hierarchy, to
extend the FOP movement to the entire state. She ordered the extension of the
movement to the entire state through a Government Order issued in September,
2004.
The
Friends of Police Movement is intended to transform the police image as well as
the police behaviour and performance.
Over the
past eighteen years, Ramnad District that was always dreaded as a trouble-prone
district has become a peaceful, if not docile district. Within a year, a
passionate but logical appeal to the Government to extend the FOP movement to
the entire state led to the unusual event of the idea of a young officer being
adopted as a model of community policing all over the state.
When one
has a vision, provision to fulfill the vision will follow in due course. In the
year 2002, the FOP idea won the prestigious 15000 sterling pound inaugural
Queen’s Award for Innovation in Police Training and Development.
The
corpus received from the Award provided the seed money to establish a state of
the art training center and documentation center in Chennai.
An opportunity
to speak at a State level Chief Minister’s Collectors-SPs’ conference led to
the State Government recognizing the Center as Asia’s first Citizens’ Community
Policing Academy and sanctioning Rupees Twenty lakhs per annum to further
institutionalize FOP through joint training of police personnel and FOP
volunteers from all walks of life.
Over the past eight years, a record one lakh police personnel and FOP
volunteers have been trained in the attitudes, skills and knowledge of
community policing.
The problem of public antagonism and police isolation is a global phenomenon as
proved by the recent devastating riots in London.
One of
the significant contributions of FOP is not just reduction of the crime rate in
Tamil Nadu but reduction of the fear of the police. The number of attacks on
police stations and police personnel has reduced to nil over the period the FOP
has been in existence. My ardent hope is that the FOP idea will spread to all
states in the country and even overseas.
The PM’s
National Police Mission that aims at transforming Indian police has recommended
to the Ministry of Home Affairs a three-tiered model of community policing
incorporating the FOP model for adoption in all states and Union Territories.
It
includes the sanction of Rupees One Crore to set up a similar Community
Policing Training and Documentation Center in each state and Union Territory.
There
have been many challenges at a personal and professional front in introducing
and sustaining the FOP Movement but my credo is summed up in the following
words written by me as a student: “Courage never denies hope; for the basis of
courage is hope and hope cannot be carried to fulfillment except through
courage.”
The
author is Inspector General of Polic (Training), Tamil Nadu Police Academy and
Project Director FOP
