When law enforcers break the rules

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IT could be hard to find anyone who does not break traffic rules in the city. We are used to see people indulge in indiscipline on the city roads. Do we not feel the need to improve the situation? What surprises us more is when we see the traffic police not following the traffic rules. This practice has become quite usual on our busy roads.
At times many senior officials in the police or the traffic department are seen taking advantage of their position to use the road the wrong way whenever they face traffic jams. One can see its intensity, standing for a while in front of Dhaka City Traffic Control office at Shantinagar. It can not avoid the notice of the people that vehicles use the wrong side of the one-way road.
Our traffic police not only violate traffic rules, they also don't how to maintain traffic discipline. Two traffic police on duty give opposite directions to the drivers. Such contradictory directions can only baffle drivers.
Meanwhile, the latest incident at Chittagong in which three policemen including one assistant commissioner of police, who were alleged to have committed robbery in a businessman's house, is an eye-opener to what extent the morale and integrity of the law-enforcing personnel have degraded. While all concerned would appreciate the steps that have promptly been taken by the related administration to deal with the case, everyone of us would like to see that effective police reforms are carried out to help address the systemic ills plaguing the police administration.
Arrests of individuals and punishment alone will not serve any useful purpose unless such institutional reforms are implemented in right earnest. Whether there are cases or not against persons who are or were involved in police administration at different tiers from top to bottom, it will be difficult to find few honest individuals. How many of corrupt officials, now serving or retired, will be put behind the bar and punished for their alleged corruption? It is better to go for deep-seated institutional reforms to plug the holes that are responsible for corruption and bribery, leading to laxity in enforcement of law.
Ali Imam
Baily Road, Dhaka