To improve policing, govt wants IPS officers to be domain experts

For promotion to senior ranks , IPS officers will have to specialise in at least on areas of policing, a home ministry proposal says.

Police officers may have to specialise in at least one domain such as counter-insurgency, anti-terrorism, economic offences or cyber offences before being promoted to senior ranks.

A cyber-crime police station in Ranchi. Cyber crime is one of the domains that police officers could specialise in.(HT file photo)

The proposal that will cover the Indian Police Service (IPS) officers has been sent by the home ministry, the administrative authority for the IPS, to the ministry of personnel for final approval.

“Under the proposal, the government will make it mandatory for IPS officers to undergo training before promotion to ranks of deputy inspector general (DIG), inspector general (IG) and additional director general (ADG) to make them domain experts,” a home ministry official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said.

Most senior police positions in the state and Centre are manned by officers drawn for IPS, an all-India service for which competition is furious. Hundreds of thousands of Indians sit a test every year and only a handful make the cut after a rigorous three-stage examination process.

The domain subjects, or the area of specialisation, are already listed in the performance appraisal report rules, sources said.

It has subjects such as anti-corruption and vigilance, police research and development, criminal investigation (CBI, CID), intelligence, cyber crime, counter-insurgency and anti-terrorism.

Before being promoted as a DIG, an officer will have to train in at least one of the domains. “Similarly for the promotion to ranks of the IG and ADG, mandatory training will have to be completed in two and three subjects, respectively,” the ministry official said.

The National Police Academy in Hyderabad and other government institutes will be asked to draw training modules. The government may also rope in private institutes.

The plan was discussed in November during an annual conference of police chiefs in Hyderabad. Prime Minister Narendra Modi and home minister Rajnath Singh also attended the meet.

“The decision has been taken as part of the follow-up of the discussion that took place in Hyderabad,” the official said.

A serving IPS officer, who didn’t want to identified as he is not allowed to speak to the media, said a maximum of four domains were assigned at the time of appraisal and they don’t get to pick them.

“If the government wants to make domain experts, they should also seek the views of the officers on the choice of domain assignments for them,” he said.

Future postings should be decided as per specialisation and the concept should be extended to other all India services as well, he said.

An IPS officer goes through at least three mid-term training programmes. The first one is after seven to nine years in the job, the next comes after another seven years and the final one is on completing at least 24 years in service. These courses are mandatory and linked to promotions and increments.