Half of beat constables do not interact with public, 60% believe no action taken on online complaints, says survey

Half of the beat constables do not interact with the public while 60% believe that no action is taken on online complaints. Nearly 45% people surveyed near markets say police do not take action against unauthorised stalls in markets.

This is what a study of infrastructure and survey of 79 "top-three" police stations in states and union territories -- 'Ranking of Police Stations 2020' -- across the country have revealed.

These police stations were chosen -- one each from Union territories barring Delhi, two each from states and Delhi with less than 750 police stations and three from states with more than 750 police stations -- for the Ranking of Best Police Stations, an annual affair of the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA).

While policy makers describe the beat system as the backbone of the policing system, the survey conducted by a Ministry of Home Affairs-mandated team near chosen police stations, nearby markets and nearby residential areas showed that 50% of the beat constables did not interact with the public.

The survey of around 4,056 people -- around 50-60 people near every police station -- also brought to light that 45% of the respondents in markets near police stations felt that no action is being taken by policemen against unauthorised stalls in markets.

Of the 79 police stations, Nongpok Sekmaiin Manipur's Thoubal district, AWPS-Suramangalam in Tamil Nadu's Salem and Kharsang in Arunachal Pradesh's Changlang district were chosen as top-three police stations in the country. Market Police station in Bidar pipped Women police station in Davanagere and Yeragera in Raichur district to become the topper among police stations in Karnataka though none of them could manage to find a space in the top-10 list.

Though several police forces tom-tom the facility of online filing of complaints, 60% believe that no action is taken on online complaints while the same proportion of people express concern about non-availability of an online platform for FIR registration.

Getting a copy of FIRs continues to be a troublesome affair in these "best police stations" too as only 42% who were coming out of police stations were having a copy of the FIRs with them. Another 53% said they did not receive any confirmation via text messages or telephone.

On the brighter side, the survey finds that most police stations had women police personnel available for women complainants while police staff were "polite, respectful and attentive" to all complainants.

When it comes to infrastructure, many police stations with comparatively older infrastructure maintained assets and high levels of cleanliness compared to some police stations with new buildings, which "failed to maintain cleanliness at the same level".

More than 10 out of 79 police stations with older infrastructure performed extremely well on performance measures, which made them stand out in overall ranking.

A concerned area highlighted by the report was fire safety -- it was least attended in police stations with 86% of them not having fire alarms. Nearly one in every three police stations had some basic fire safety equipment like sand and water buckets and hose pipes among others.

Accessibility for the disabled was another issue with the report saying that ramp facility was not available in several police stations. However, when it came to toilets, all police stations had it. Compounds of 63% police stations were found to be clean and well-kept while only 17% had parking facilities.