The government is going to appoint 50,000 more people in police department, according to a report yesterday. In Bangladesh, police-population ratio is still lopsided, about 1:1133. Obviously for better policing of the nation, more appointment of personnel in the department is quite logical. But the reality is: police is losing its image as a law enforcing agency more and more as the force is entangling itself in controversies one after another. The recent comment of the IGP to describe the event of Pahela Baishakh celebrations at the TSC as mere ‘naughty behaviour’ of some youth drew ire of the people of all sections in society. Later, the way it handled the protestors of the molestation as they went to submit a memorandum to the police department was also criticised by all. At that time, police indiscriminately beat the lady protestors. If police continues to make slipshod efforts in law enforcement and then shift blame on common people using them as scapegoats, the service of the police will never improve and the home ministry must take actions in this regard.
A few days ago, the World Justice Project (WJP) published the rule of law index covering 102 countries and sadly though Bangladesh stands at the position 93 while Nepal, Sri Lanka and India are at 48, 58, 59 positions respectively. And most of the burden of this failure in law enforcement must be shared by the police. Therefore, it is not only necessary to increase the number of personnel in the police force, it is equally important to raise the standard of their service delivery. Citizens’ complaints have piled against the department which is hardly approached by people, particularly women, in times of need. Ninety-five per cent women recently interviewed said that they were not willing to go to police for any help; they believe that instead of standing beside the victims, police put blame on them on the contrary. Police show unwillingness to file cases and women do not get any result after making complaints. But the police have to build up a positive image in the eye of people through improving its performance in providing peace and security to common people in general from different kinds of crimes. If people in general do not receive service from the police department, spending huge money for even more personnel and other logistic supports will be regarded as wastage.