Police officers get the Cambridge edge

In order to hone their policing skills to meet internal security challenges and aspirations of a modern democratic society, around 100 senior Indian Police Service (IPS) officers, completed their mid-career innovative training programme at the prestigious Cambridge University in the UK.

In order to hone their policing skills to meet internal security challenges and aspirations of a modern democratic society, around 100 senior Indian Police Service (IPS) officers, completed their mid-career innovative training programme at the prestigious Cambridge University in the UK.

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The ministry of home affairs had, in March last year, awarded the contract for the training to the Cambridge University in partnership with the OP Jindal Global University, Haryana.

The two-week programme, which concluded on January 14, was the second leg of their training after the officers in the rank of inspector general of police and director general of police completed their six-week refresher course at the National Police Academy in Hyderabad on December 30, 2010.

The training was aimed at enhancing the professional and leadership skills by exposing the officers to the best international practices in the field of policing.

Hyderabad-based National Police Academy director Rajiv Mathur, who joined the officers towards the end of the training, said: “The Cambridge-Jindal IPS training programme adopted a unique pedagogy that combined substantive knowledge relating to police studies of academics with the field experience of police officers around the world.”

OP Jindal Global University vice-chancellor professor C Raj Kumar told HT: “The programme was conducted by faculty members from both the Universities and police practitioners from the UK, USA and Australia. It meets the objective of strengthening the law enforcement mechanisms through knowledge based policing.”

Kumar said: "The next batch of the Cambridge-Jindal training programme will commence in May 2011."

Kumar said the programme in the UK began on January 3 with a brief orientation session, which took place at the Judge Business School, Cambridge and the IPS officers made field visits to prisons, courts and police stations in Britain.

Course co-director Lawrence Sherman, the Wolfson Professor of Criminology, University of Cambridge said: “The programme is a reflection of the growing partnership between two the universities in promoting a systematic and rigorous study of policing in India and to develop evidence-based policing that will strengthen the effectiveness of the Indian law enforcement machinery”.