Public approval rating system: Police attempts image makeover in 11 U.P districts

The new rating system, based on people’s feedback, is also being used to grade in-charge of police stations.

Unlike the traditional way of evaluating crime scenario, a new public approval rating system has been initiated in eleven districts of Gorakhpur zone.

Police attempts image makeover in 11 U.P districts (file)

The new technology-based rating system, launched six months back by additional director general (ADG), Akhil Kumar, Gorakhpur zone, is also being used to grade in-charge of police stations.

“While better performers are rewarded, those regularly faring poorly are removed as police station in-charge,” said Kumar. A command center has been set up for public feedback on police response after their complaint is attended.

“The new system has generated positive feedback but it will take some time to make police accountable to the common man. The whole idea is not to analyse police performance on the basis of data and statistics alone, as has been done for decades,” Kumar said. The traditional way of evaluating police performance is by comparing number of FIRs registered with number of arrests that have been made. Police has regularly been accused of avoiding registering FIRs as the general perception has been to rate the police performance on the number of FIRs registered. The new rating system, however, seeks to encourage FIR registration and also to improve perception about the police.

The new rating system also has manual provisions to evaluate crime scenario through registration of FIRs, problems faced in its registration, response to services like passport and character verification among other things.

The sample size of the public approval system is also increasing daily and is currently pegged around “80,000 to 1.20 lakh”.

Kumar said this system is based on six points.

The first point is about number of complaints and complainants approaching senior police officers like inspectors general (IG) and deputy IGs of Gorakhpur, Basti and Devipatan, the three ranges that come under Gorakhpur zone.

The other points include collecting feedback from victims and complainants about FIR registration and action taken, random feedback from people approaching police for different citizen services like passport verification and character verification and emergency response feedback, collected and collated from UP-112 feedback system that is already operational in the state

Apart from these, there are two other points on general perception about police working and image.

“For this we do a public opinion poll by sharing links on social media and seeking public response about police functioning,” Kumar said.

The ADG said this practice is done in the first week of each month and the rating is later analysed through opinions of complainants and commoners.

Subsequently, the rankings of each district are released and suggestions made for improvement in areas where there is scope for doing better, he said.

“The rankings of police station in-charge too are done by senior superintendents of police and superintendents of police from 11th to 17th of every month. Top five performers are awarded while worst five performers are issued advisory for the first time. Warning is issued on a back-to-back poor performance. If the in-charge features in the worst performers’ list for the third month too, he is removed from his post,” Kumar explained.

The Gorakhpur zone is the biggest police zone in the state including Gorakhpur, Devipatan and Basti police ranges. The Gorakhpur range includes Gorakhpur, Deoria, Mahrajganj and Kushinagar districts while the Basti range includes Basti, Siddarthnagar and Sant Kabir Nagar districts and the Devipatan range that include Bahraich, Balrampur, Gonda and Shravasti.

Box

An opinion poll with a difference

“How we are working? Please let us know whether we have performed to your expectations. Also, tell us if it isn’t up to your expectations. Your opinion is crucial for us and will help us improve efficiency and our working style. We are committed to ensuring quality service.”

These posts are part of opinion polls being done by the police regularly on social media to encourage people to share their opinion about police functioning.

People’s opinion is also being sought by getting QR code (for link to the poll) published in newspapers and sharing the same in different WhatsApp groups too.