Hardly ever with you or for you

Police commissioner K.K. Paul, presenting Delhi Police?s progress report, emphasised that rape cannot be prevented by the police, because in most cases the rapists were known to the victims.

Police commissioner K.K. Paul, presenting Delhi Police’s progress report, emphasised that rape cannot be prevented by the police, because in most cases the rapists were known to the victims. Of the 3 per cent rapes that were committed by ‘strangers’, many (except the ones reported extensively, that is) had been solved. The police chief has obviously failed to acknowledge that better police work — forensics, case management at the court level — could lead to more convictions and act as a deterrent that will prevent crime — be that of murder, rape or burglary. What he has turned a blind eye to is that his force is not feared by criminals and not respected by citizens. That is what leaves it in an awkward situation where, verily, statistics are the only means that can bail it out.

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There is no perceptible change in policing the city. Can the police deny that it has failed to secure Delhi’s roads? Unruly traffic, porous borders and rapists on the prowl continue to be a reality? What is its excuse for the ineptitude in its road tracking and monitoring controls that allow rapists to roam Delhi’s roads even as they commit the crime? Delhi’s law and order is being overseen by a close to 60,000-strong force. The problems it faces, especially in resource allocation (no compromises on VIP security), have been listed endlessly. But little seems to have changed. Recourse to statistics is one thing but to use these to sketch a false picture quite another. The commissioner says that 40 per cent of rape cases have been reported from 10 ‘problem clusters’ — apparently socially backward sectors. But many of these are cases of elopement with minor girls — which are also registered as rape.

There is urgent need for police reform, especially in inculcating in the force a sense of ownership and accountability. But to grant credit where it’s due, Mr Paul has rightly asserted that in the last year the emphasis on ensuring fair registration of cases across the capital’s police stations has proved fruitful. The remaining statistics that have been reeled out however bring no reassurance to the average citizen. The police force must go after abusers of law and human dignity with passion and determination if it wants kudos from Delhi’s citizens.