New police law caught in red tape

Though initiated long seven years ago, finalisation of the draft of a new police law to replace the existing Police Act 1861 is now caught in red tape, reports UNB.
A five-member committee of the police headquarters, formed under the
auspices of the then caretaker government, prepared the draft Bangladesh Police Ordinance 2007 and submitted it to the home ministry.
The ordinance focused on citizen-centric police and gave great emphasis on the accountability of the force.
Later, as per the recommendations of the then chief adviser's office and the home ministry, a number of community consultations involving different stakeholders and people of different classes and professions at divisional, district and upazila levels were held in 2008.
The recommendations of the consultations were then sent to the home ministry.
After a lapse of four years, the ministry gave a feedback on the proposed ordinance to the police headquarters in August 2012.
The police headquarters was asked to prepare the ordinance anew to make it more time-befitting, correspond to the contemporary context.
Following the recommendation, a ten-member committee, headed by the additional IGP of the Criminal Investigation Department (CID), was formed to review the ordinance.
The committee took about one year to finish the review and sent a new draft, styled 'draft Bangladesh Police Bill 2013', to the home ministry in April last year.
The law is now caught in red tape as the proposed law will ensure such a police force which will be free from both political and bureaucratic control, a senior police officer, preferring anonymity, told UNB.
Contacted, State Minister for Home Affairs Assaduzzaman Khan Kamal told UNB that the proposed police law is in final stage.
Asked when it might be completed as already nearly seven years have passed to prepare the draft, he said: "I hope it will be formulated very soon."