Victims of a 'system' Back
By Shailesh Gandhi, Former Central Information Commissioner
The law requires a First Information Report (FIR) to be recorded by the police when someone reports a cognizable offence (such as murder, robbery, forgery, etc.). However, many police officers do not discharge this elementary duty. Citizens usually blame the individual official they meet at the police station for not registering their complaint. But little do they realize that the individual officer regards himself as the victim of a 'system'--one that has, for decades, blamed the police for a rise in crime figures. The police thus registers less crimes to reflect a better performance on their part.
However, in reality, our crime statistics are not representative of facts. The truth is that crime is more a function of various social factors, and to some extent a reflection of the criminal justice system. Citizens and the media must understand thus that the number of complaints registered is not a direct reflection on the police. As former Cabinet Secretary T.S.R. Subramanian has written, 'The target is not the reduction in crimes committed, but in reducing the number of crimes registered'.
A study of cognizable crimes registered in Mumbai shows that in the year 1984 there were 32,419 crimes registered, which corresponds to 373 crimes per lakh population. In 2007, the police registered 30,197 crimes, i.e., 227 crimes per lakh population in a year! For the country as a whole, the figure is less than 200. This is not a reflection of the actual crime situation, but the consequence of an unwritten policy across India to ensure that the number of crimes registered do not go up significantly.
We as a people need to adopt a more sensible way to monitor police performance. A demand must be created to follow the law and register every crime which is reported. The police complain that they do not have adequate personnel to investigate all the crimes that are reported. However, only when they record all the complaints that are reported, will we know just how many police officers are required for. The government can then be pressurized to provide adequate police personnel and the crime rate can then decrease in the long term.