Covid-19: Police must take precautions

With increasing number of policemen testing positive for Covid-19 and many dying due the disease contracted while on duty, a serious situation is emerging across the country. Police are becoming unavailable for duty when their presence is needed most.

As a profession, like the medical fraternity, police cannot avoid public contact. Whether it is arresting a suspect or a criminal or whether enforcing ‘shutdowns’ or even simple traffic management, physical contact with members of the public is inevitable. The very nature of their work makes police, like doctors, more vulnerable to the scary disease.

In the first phase of the Covid fighting, when the infection had not reached alarming proportions, the threat of getting infected was minimal for the police. With lockdowns in place throughout the country, the spread of infection was slow and very few policemen contracted the disease.

With liquor shops being shut, lockdowns resulted in fewer crimes. Most cities in India reported a 60-90% drop in crimes as compared to 2019. A curfew like situation ensured minimal public order problems and traffic management.

But the lifting of the lockdown changed all that. The number of crimes, like the number of Covid positive cases, slowly started shooting up. When this happened, police had to not only concentrate on their primary job of prevention and detection of crime but also help the civic administration in containing the spread of the virus.

Prevention and detection of crimes involve securing suspects and criminals. This results in physical contact. The Criminal Procedure Code mandates that arrest is made only by touching a person and declaring that he/she is under arrest.

And this is risky. Since it is impossible to arrest habitual criminals without using physical force, policemen become vulnerable to the virus. Recently, an arrested criminal in Bengaluru, who tested Covid positive, escaped from his hospital bed. While chasing and re-arresting him, over a dozen cops came into his contact and are now forced into quarantine.

Such incidents have made policemen across the country hesitant to go to the field and arrest suspects and criminals. The death of an Assistant Police Sub Inspector and two constables in Karnataka who contracted the disease in the course of their duty have dented the morale of the brave warriors. A Covid-positive head constable dying of suicide while on his way to the hospital is a case in point. Police leadership now faces two distinct problems. How to manage the increasing duties with lesser number of personnel available to them and how to motivate the available persons to work without fear is their dilemma.

Giving facemasks, face shields and sanitisers, allowing weekly offs, asking more than 50-year olds to stay at home are some of the measures being taken. To minimise contact at the police stations, some officers have asked their subordinates to meet public in a separate place where physical distancing and other precautions can be ensured.

The police chief of Tamil Nadu has ordered separate ‘detention chambers’ where arrested criminals can be lodged. Some police chiefs have also planned to give PPE kits to the policemen. Despite all these measures, fear lurks in the minds of almost every policeman.

Even after taking all such precautions, a large chunk of police force would still contract the disease and would either be quarantined or put in hospital wards. This in effect would mean a lesser number of policemen available for duties.

5 lakh jobs vacant

As on date, there are about five lakh police jobs vacant in India. To add to this, if many policemen get immobilised by the virus, a serious manpower situation will unfold.

Crimes are bound to increase due to large scale unemployment. While offences against property will surely rise, bodily offences will also go up. Discontentment would result in problems related to public order and all these would demand increased police presence.

With their strength reduced due to the virus, police will be hard pressed to meet the growing demands.

This would mean certain police functions getting lesser attention. Prevention and detection of property offences would most likely take a hit. Undetected cases would go up.

It therefore becomes incumbent on the citizens to become ‘atma-nirbhar’ and ensure that crimes, especially property offences, are prevented. They can help police by taking suitable precautionary measures.

They could deploy private security agencies to guard their properties, invest on CCTV cameras and other security gadgets at homes and offices, keep their valuables in bank lockers, organise beats and patrols in their localities through Neighbourhood Watch schemes etc.

They must become more aware of lurking cyber-criminals who have already raised their heads now and take preventive measures.

Apart from taking precautions against contracting Covid, the citizens should avoid becoming victims of crime. With the numbers of policemen available for duty getting reduced due to the virus, this becomes inevitable.

(The writer retired as Director General of Police in Karnataka)