Promoting more civilised police methods
Saturday, 3 November 2007
Mohammed Hossain
IN both new and mature democratic societies, police remain under growing pressure from citizens not only to control crime but also to fairly treat suspects. In theory, the police are the most visible instrument of enforcement of the law to keep social order. Historically, there are two distinct models of policing: the high policing and low policing (Brodeur, 1983).
The roots of high policing can be traced from the Roman law. The police created in France in 1667 under Louis XIV was the first police organisation comparable to modern forces. It is an all absorbent policing paradigm that reaches out for potential threats in a systematic attempt to preserve the distribution of power in a given society. In the pursuit of order, high policing remains ready to subdue the haughty by force. In contrast, low policing follows more civilised method, opposed to high policing and its repressive consequences. Indeed, it finds its origin in Sir Robert Peel's preventive police of Great Britain in 1829. It limits its activities to the reinforcement of criminal law and the gathering of information about public opinion (Brodeur, 1983).
The quest for order by peaceful means is the preferred style of low policing, and it is regarded as one of the cultural behaviour of modern civilisation.
However, studies (Decker, 1981; Manning, 1997) show that the public opinion toward the police is important for at least three reasons. First, a positive image is necessary for the police to function effectively. Second, police receives its mandate from the public, the consumer of its services. Third, in the era of community policing, confidence on police has additional value, as it could be an alternative measure of police effectiveness.
The value of police is dependent on public confidence on police activities. Police must follow four common values: respect, integrity, service and excellence.
The police needs to uphold these values as follows:
RESPECT: We (Police) value people and treat all people with respect, sensitivity, compassion, and understanding.
INTEGRITY: We hold ourselves to the highest standards and are accountable for our actions both personally and as an organisation.
SERVICE: We value the community we serve and meet the community's needs while working together to build and maintain channels of communication between ourselves and the community.
EXCELLENCE: We are committed to, and pride ourselves in, our personal and organisational excellence and professionalism, acting responsibly and carrying out our duties with competence and efficiency.
However, this writer wrote in greater detail about ethical issues relating to police in my previous articles published by The Financial Express a few months back.
To address the issue of establishing public confidence on the police we need to change some of the approaches of policing. It is obviously true that police has always been mishandled by governments. The present caretaker government, with the support of the UK's Department for International Development (DfID) has taken some steps to bring or are going to some radical changes to the way police functions including introduction of model Thana concept, one-stop service, separate police salary structure etc. Those are good steps from the administration for public confidence to grow on policing. However, in my personal opinion, I would like to put forward a suggestion from the social perspective. There is an urgent need for regular communication between the police and the people's groups like the elite, professionals, and business. This approach will have an impact on civil society and can create a close relationship between the people and the police.
The need for civilian supervision grew not so much due to structure but because of changing relationships between the civil society and government agencies like police. Law enforcement agencies ought to protect the fundamental human rights of all citizens and to strengthen the process for finding remedies to problems. To be effective, civilian supervision seeks to achieve these goals through collaboration between citizens and the police.
Although civilian supervision can never substitute good policing or internal system of fostering a culture of accountability and responsibility. Confidence on police in our country is well comparable to that of India. A recent study of 50 countries [Liqun and Mengyan (2006)], shows that confidence on the police varies a great deal among the countries. Finland with 86% topped the list with regard to enjoying public confidence, and the Dominican Republic with 13% was at the bottom. The descending order of confidence in the police in the world is Finland, Norway, Sweden, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Japan, Australia, Ghana, S. Africa, USA, West Germany, Switzerland, Turkey, China, Spain, Croatia, Taiwan, Puerto Rico, Montenegro, the Philippines, Poland, Uruguay, East Germany, Bulgaria, Chile, Estonia, Colombia, S. Korea, Slovenia, Brazil, Serbia, Azerbaijan, India (60%), Bangladesh (57%), Belarus, Ukraine, Nigeria, Georgia, Moldova, Mexico, Armenia, Latvia, Russia, Venezuela, Macedonia, Argentina, Peru, Lithuania, Pakistan, and Dominican Republic.
We need to address the issue of confidence on policing. The civil society should work to foster good relationship between the police and the public. We need to identify police as the nation's respected public service institution. The more we practise the good things the more we will have positive outcome and one day the most people will have COP (confidence on Police).
The writer is an Associate Professor in the Department of Accounting and Information Systems of Islamic University, Kushtia Bangladesh and now is a PhD candidate at the School of Management of the University of Liverpool, UK. He can be reached at email:
[email protected].
IN both new and mature democratic societies, police remain under growing pressure from citizens not only to control crime but also to fairly treat suspects. In theory, the police are the most visible instrument of enforcement of the law to keep social order. Historically, there are two distinct models of policing: the high policing and low policing (Brodeur, 1983).
The roots of high policing can be traced from the Roman law. The police created in France in 1667 under Louis XIV was the first police organisation comparable to modern forces. It is an all absorbent policing paradigm that reaches out for potential threats in a systematic attempt to preserve the distribution of power in a given society. In the pursuit of order, high policing remains ready to subdue the haughty by force. In contrast, low policing follows more civilised method, opposed to high policing and its repressive consequences. Indeed, it finds its origin in Sir Robert Peel's preventive police of Great Britain in 1829. It limits its activities to the reinforcement of criminal law and the gathering of information about public opinion (Brodeur, 1983).
The quest for order by peaceful means is the preferred style of low policing, and it is regarded as one of the cultural behaviour of modern civilisation.
However, studies (Decker, 1981; Manning, 1997) show that the public opinion toward the police is important for at least three reasons. First, a positive image is necessary for the police to function effectively. Second, police receives its mandate from the public, the consumer of its services. Third, in the era of community policing, confidence on police has additional value, as it could be an alternative measure of police effectiveness.
The value of police is dependent on public confidence on police activities. Police must follow four common values: respect, integrity, service and excellence.
The police needs to uphold these values as follows:
RESPECT: We (Police) value people and treat all people with respect, sensitivity, compassion, and understanding.
INTEGRITY: We hold ourselves to the highest standards and are accountable for our actions both personally and as an organisation.
SERVICE: We value the community we serve and meet the community's needs while working together to build and maintain channels of communication between ourselves and the community.
EXCELLENCE: We are committed to, and pride ourselves in, our personal and organisational excellence and professionalism, acting responsibly and carrying out our duties with competence and efficiency.
However, this writer wrote in greater detail about ethical issues relating to police in my previous articles published by The Financial Express a few months back.
To address the issue of establishing public confidence on the police we need to change some of the approaches of policing. It is obviously true that police has always been mishandled by governments. The present caretaker government, with the support of the UK's Department for International Development (DfID) has taken some steps to bring or are going to some radical changes to the way police functions including introduction of model Thana concept, one-stop service, separate police salary structure etc. Those are good steps from the administration for public confidence to grow on policing. However, in my personal opinion, I would like to put forward a suggestion from the social perspective. There is an urgent need for regular communication between the police and the people's groups like the elite, professionals, and business. This approach will have an impact on civil society and can create a close relationship between the people and the police.
The need for civilian supervision grew not so much due to structure but because of changing relationships between the civil society and government agencies like police. Law enforcement agencies ought to protect the fundamental human rights of all citizens and to strengthen the process for finding remedies to problems. To be effective, civilian supervision seeks to achieve these goals through collaboration between citizens and the police.
Although civilian supervision can never substitute good policing or internal system of fostering a culture of accountability and responsibility. Confidence on police in our country is well comparable to that of India. A recent study of 50 countries [Liqun and Mengyan (2006)], shows that confidence on the police varies a great deal among the countries. Finland with 86% topped the list with regard to enjoying public confidence, and the Dominican Republic with 13% was at the bottom. The descending order of confidence in the police in the world is Finland, Norway, Sweden, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Japan, Australia, Ghana, S. Africa, USA, West Germany, Switzerland, Turkey, China, Spain, Croatia, Taiwan, Puerto Rico, Montenegro, the Philippines, Poland, Uruguay, East Germany, Bulgaria, Chile, Estonia, Colombia, S. Korea, Slovenia, Brazil, Serbia, Azerbaijan, India (60%), Bangladesh (57%), Belarus, Ukraine, Nigeria, Georgia, Moldova, Mexico, Armenia, Latvia, Russia, Venezuela, Macedonia, Argentina, Peru, Lithuania, Pakistan, and Dominican Republic.
We need to address the issue of confidence on policing. The civil society should work to foster good relationship between the police and the public. We need to identify police as the nation's respected public service institution. The more we practise the good things the more we will have positive outcome and one day the most people will have COP (confidence on Police).
The writer is an Associate Professor in the Department of Accounting and Information Systems of Islamic University, Kushtia Bangladesh and now is a PhD candidate at the School of Management of the University of Liverpool, UK. He can be reached at email:
[email protected].