How to reform Pakistan Police ?

[Kompromat]

Give Pakistani police under the command of Pakistani army.

Thats what exactly Musharraf did after coming to power , didn't work too well and many Army officers got corrupted instead by simply being part of that system.

 

[Rusty]

Re hire the current police. the ones who are known to be corrupt or immoral should be let get, the ones who can be saved should be re trained.

Also start a hiring campaign for new police officers. All new police officers should have a college degree in anything. Of course they should also be paid a middle class wadge with good benefits.

 

[harpoon]

Some police officers should be trained abroad like in US or UK. This will I believe will bring in a change of mindset of the officers.

 

[VCheng]

The key to reforming the police force is to free it from the shackles intentionally imposed on it by the political and bureaucratic classes, and compounded by chronic under funding. The police themselves are not blame. After all, look at how well the Motorway Police works. Same people, but different rules.

The reform should be done at the divisional level, keeping the core people down to a manageable size (5 for Sind, 6 for Baluchistan, 7 for KPK, 9 for Punjab and 1 for the Capital Territory, I think). Each carefully selected person would then be given direct control over their budget and authority, with a clear set of goals for maintaining law and order, which will be published and updated as the targets are met. They will in turn need to create their core teams at the district level, and then down another tier and so on. This structure needs to be funded and kept independent of political interference.

Coupled with this needs to be a reform of the local court system so that criminals are duly punished and not set free. Given the immense backlog, the courts need to be given a hierarchy of goals, starting with most violent crimes first and moving down the list.

 

[Indus Pakistan]

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@ VCheng

^^ Some good ideas there. Shall we just sound off some ideas and then later cherry pick the best and include them in a final summary?

1. I think it's safe to say we all agree funding has to increase to cope with the demands of modern policing. I just saw a thread about 6 Qing Class ships for Pak Navy. I do think that Pak just needs a glorified coastguard. We need to cull our navy by at least 50%. Let us fall back on the nuclear MAD viz India. The money saved needs to be invested in law enforcement.

2. We all agree that we need to insulate the police from political influence. How do we do that that though? That is the million pound question. I think this Q is the tough one and the Gordian Knot that needs resolving. Sort this one out and everything else will fall in place.

3. I like your idea of having operational level police units at every division of the provinces. Perhaps each should have a UK style Chief Constable who is responsibile for all operational aspects of his force [ service? ].

4. How about having central level police command [ equivalent to army GHQ ] that is responsible for police recruitment, training, evolving tactics, central labs, police research, human resources, postings etc This central command should have a Inspector General who would be equal to Gen. Kayani in the military.

5. Recruitment handled by central command should have a selection process similar to the military officer selection process and all entrants should go to Kakul style police academy with training at international standards that is geared to graduating officers who are cosmopolitan, open minded and are sensitized to the plight of the weak. The idea being to produce cadets who have a strong sense of fair play and justice.

6. The present two tier rank structure should be abolished. The lowest lowest rank should be a police constable which should attract the same pay and privilages as a second lieutenant in the army. All applicants should be at least graduates or Fa or Fsc or A levels or International Baccalaureate.

7. At least 50% of the operational officers in any divisional level force should be from other areas of Pakistan and all officers should be rotated every few years. This would be to deter the possibility of local informal networks developing.

8. At the divisional and central command level there should be oversight committees to provide oversight made up of retired army officers [ at least above the rank brigadier, senior retired academics, other noteable people from the community. There should be a national Police Ombudsman Office which would employ non police officers [ lawyers, accountants, academics etc] to investigate and prosecute cases where complaints are made against police officers.

9. With the increased pay, position, privilages of police officers the public would expect those who wear the uniform to live by a above average moral code of conduct and this would a[pply to their which company they keep, their behaviour off duty etc.

We will given our level of societal development not reach the standard of say police forces in UK but I think we can do lot better than what we have at the moment. Inevitably we will stil have some corruption since South Asian society is more prone to this than Western societies but we can improve on what we have at the moment.

I don't think we should read too much into the Motorway Police because of the peculiar nature of their operational area. Most of their involvement revolves around traffice offences that are cut and dry cases as opposed to the organized crime, clan based crime, family vendettas etc that are so common in Pakistan where there is much at stake anmd police are open to much discretion in how they go about caes.

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I would also ask Joe Shearer to apply his considerable intellect on the subject and perhaps give us any ideas from Indian attempts at reform of their antiquated police forces.

 

[Indus Pakistan]

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In UK a typical Police Constable pay is £27,000 Pa and a British Army Second Lieutenant is £25,000 Pa. Of course there are all sort of other variables but I think that does put things in perspective. This also shows what importance the UK gives to the provision of justice and the police in general.

Police Pay
Pay - British Army Website

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I used the rank of Police constable because that is the lowest rank found in UK police forces and of course in the army the lowest ranking officer is Second Lieutenant. Thus both are almost comparable in pay and rank.

 

[VCheng]

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In UK a typical Police Constable pay is £27,000 Pa and a British Army Second Lieutenant is £25,000 Pa. Of course there are all sort of other variables but I think that does put things in perspective. This also shows what importance the UK gives to the provision of justice and the police in general.

Police Pay
Pay - British Army Website

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I used the rank of Police constable because that is the lowest rank found in UK police forces and of course in the army the lowest ranking officer is Second Lieutenant. Thus both are almost comparable in pay and rank.

What are the comparable ranks and their current salaries and benefits in Pakistan?

 

[yyetttt]

50,000 rs pay to our police...

 

[mjnaushad]

^^^ Please add per annum.....

 

[TaimiKhan]

Some people as usual always go the line, reduce the defence budget and then see what wonders other neglected fields in Pakistan do.

This is a very wrong perception and the way to go forward, instead of bringing in defence budget, first we need to ask is the budget already allocated to police, education etc etc is efficiently & effectively being utilized, and the answer is very simple, NO.

So, we should not ask for reduce the defence budget as a first, rather we should ask that utilize the current available budget to its maximum effectiveness and bring efficiency with the current budget, you do that and we will start seeing wonderful results even without ever to reduce the defence budget. You reduce the defence budget and give it to police or education without making sure that the already used budgets of police or education is used how and in what manner, you will pour more resources which will go in corruption rather then see it bear some fruits. millions of rs go waste in the education dept on ghost schools and ghost teachers & other stuff, similarly millions go in waste in the police dept through many ways.

Also comparing pay packages of British Army Lieutenant and a Constable is nor the right way, constable may be getting a higher pay but then the Lieutenant of the army would be enjoying some perks / compensation in return for a lesser pay.

Police do need to have better pay packages and other privileges but kindly don't compare them to the army guys as both do different tasks and the army guys have a much much tougher task at hand when compared to what police guys have to do. Thus no comparing please. Give good pay packages, and other incentives which will bring in efficiency in the police walas.

And one other thing, even if you pay more salaries it doesn't means you will see an end to corruption, ending corruption needs a lot of other stuff and depends on factors, character building is one of the major factor, that is what we are lacking and that is why we are seeing the rise of corruption of every kind in our society.

 

[AHMED85]

/ Sorry \
"You need loyal force for country to overcome in this problem"....
............................................................**** you cant have.............................................................................

 

[AHMED85]

Ek Machar Aadmi Ko HiJda Bana Deta Hai! BY BLGURJAR - YouTube

 

[Psyxjen]

Here's one point I don't see raised here..

That we alter the structure of a metropolitan police force by 'integrating' it with the society of the specific area that comes under each station's jurisdiction. For instance, have recruitment bonuses for officers who join the force and are placed in the same station that covers their area of residence... It gives a sense of 'personal responsibility'. This local police force would be more motivated to solve problems because it effects their own community. This can branch out to various social functions the police can take responsibility of.
Furthermore, dealing with the issue of serious crime, the City Police Force can be much more focus oriented, having trained, heavily armed squads ready round the clock, to be called if a local police station feels that the situation merits backup.

All in all, with the various ideas mentioned by members above, I do think integrating the police with the community would really help.

 

[AstanoshKhan]

Well since most of the problems and its solutions have been emphasized upon by our seniors and intellectuals on this forum, there's little left for us youngster to say. Anyway, I'd say install a principled and just DIG with full urgent-based judicial process... then watch what wonders he can do... you change the head, the whole body gets cured automatically.

 

[tnc123]

May be the solution is to make "Pakistan Police" instead of provincial polices, and revamp the whole structure having same rules and same norms all over the country and equal representation of people and locals must b stationed locally