Human Rights and Police
- Part 2 -

By Jinine Laishramcha *

Criminal Behaviour

As the causation of crime is linked with several sociological factors like corruption, poverty, lack of recreational facilities, broken home, crime-wave and in fact State failure, the role of police for the prevention of crime in society should be after fully understanding the social psychology of the people and the situation which give birth to various types of crimes.

Every time and everywhere, a criminal is caught by police to make him a reformed citizen. It has been observed that a good number of police officers/men are still reluctant to accept the idea that crime-doers are also human beings and most of them are not atypical or abnormal.

No doubt, the use of third degree in police work is indicative of the lack of ability to understand the psychology of those who commit crimes or the inability to employ affective psychology techniques of crimes. "Some of the unfortunate who have had a bitter experience of police stations say that the scar left by the police in their soul and body has made them complete wrecks in the sea of life…the roughing up at the police hands prior to court action has been more cruel than the 'eye-for-eye', 'truth-for-truth' principle of criminal justice."

While interacting with the crime-doer and interpreting their behavior, let the police take into account—

• Having committed a crime, no one deserves to be treated harshly by the police.
• A crime-doer too has all the right, privileges and safeguards which any other citizen enjoys in society. The difference between a criminal citizen and a non-criminal citizen is that the former is detected while the latter is not although each one commits crimes in his/her own ways.
• Police often deal with crime-doer who does not require extensive treatment in correctional institutions. A good many of the crime-doer, when they are punished by a court, get only short-term-sentences. They, more often than not, complete their period and come out without getting any specialized treatment. Once they are not out of the correctional institutions, they as a rule are not great threats to the safety and security of the State.
• Criminal and the tendency to commit crime and are seen in everybody including the police officers. There is no crime-doer who is totally criminal in his feeling, word and actions. He is good in many respects and therefore, tries to see the good sides of the crime-doer's personality.

Code of Conduct for the police in India

Government of India in 1985 enacted the following principle for police conduct. They are:

1. The police must bear faithful allegiance to the Constitution India and respect and uphold the right of the citizens as guaranteed by it.
2. The police should not question the propriety or necessity of any law duly enacted. They should enforce the law firmly and impartially, without fear or favour, malice or vindictiveness.
3. The police should recognize and respect the limitation of their powers and functions. They should not usurp or even seem to usurp the functions of the judiciary and sit in judgment on cases to avenge individuals and punish the guilty.
4. In securing the observance of law or in maintaining order, the police should, as far as practicable, use the methods of persuasion, advice and warning. When the application of force becomes inevitable, only the irreducible minimum of force required in the circumstances should be used.
5. The prime duty of the police is to prevent crime and disorder and the police must recognise that the test of their efficiency is the absence of both and not the visible evidence of police in dealing with them.
6. The police must recognise that they are members of the public, with the only difference that in the interest of the society and on its behalf they are employed to give full time attention to duties which are normally incumbent on every citizen to perform.
7. The police should realise that the efficient performance of their duties will be dependent on the extent of ready cooperation that they receive from the public. This, in turn, will depend on their ability to secure public approval of their conduct and action and to earn and retain public respect and confidence.
8. The police should always keep the welfare of the people in mind be sympathetic and considerate towards them. They should always be ready to offer individual service and friendship and tender necessary assistance to all without regard to their wealth or social standing.
9. The police should always place duty before self, should remain calm in the face of danger, scorn or ridicule and should be ready to sacrifice their lives in protecting those of others.
10. The police should always be courteous and well-mannered; they should be dependable and impartial; they should possess dignity and courage; and should cultivate, character and the trust of the people.
11. Integrity of the highest order is the fundament basis of the prestige of the police. Recognizing this, the police must keep their private lives scrupulously clean, develop self restraint and be truthful and honest in thought and deed, in both personal and official life, so that the public may regard them as exemplary citizens.
12. The police should recognise that their full utility to the State is best ensured only by maintaining a high standard of discipline, faithful performance of duties in accordance with law and implicit obedience to the lawful direction of commanding rank and absolute loyalty to the force and by keeping themselves in a state of constant training and preparedness.
13. As members of a secular, democratic State, the police should strive continually to rise above personal prejudices and promote harmony and spirit of common brotherhood amongst all the people of India transcending religious, linguistic and region or sectional diversities and to renounce practices derogatory to the dignity of woman and disadvantage segment of the society.

Common Guidelines of Successful Interrogation

In fact police in India is facing various types of problems like working in the situation deteriorated by the poor infrastructure, lack of proper training and scientific skill, unfair pressure from politicians and other superiors and so on.

The guidelines given are serious standard to be observed by the interrogator with sole objective of the respecting human rights of others;

1. Preparing himself for interrogation: Basic investigations work should be completed and the interrogator should have in his mind the complete picture of the crime. He should prepare a set of questions and think about possible answers and has to disapprove those answers.
2. Selecting a congenial place for the interrogation: A quite undisturbed place is to be selected for interrogation and the process should not be disturbed by anyone. Extraneous disturbances will enable the suspect to break the tempo.
3. Remembering that the suspect has prepared himself for interrogation even before committing the crime, and will be having answers and justification ready. He should be allowed to have his say and periodically during the interrogation, he should be questioned on those points. Contradiction should be carefully noted in the interrogator's mind, in order to confront the suspect later.
4. The interrogator should be assume a friendly posture, and be soft spoken and sympathetic. Arrogance, a superior attitude and loud noise will make the suspect withdraw into a shell.
5. Interrogator should behave in a dignified manner, not display feeling of revenge, brutality and hate. The suspect can deal with one who is undignified but he will find it difficult to deal with one who is dignified in his responses.
6. The suspect knows the truth and he can call the bluff. It will only make him bold to come out with false statements.
7. Interrogator should not request the suspect to admit guilt. This will only amuse the suspect and embolden him to hold out.
8. Interrogator should never allow the suspect to intimidate by silence: Keep on talking, not necessarily about crime, even about general matters. The suspect will interrupt to correct or add once he breaks the silence; it is easy to resume questioning.
9. Interrogator should not make false promises that can never be kept.
10. Interrogator should not threaten the suspect with reprisals on his dear or near ones. Nor he should deal with them brutally in the presence of the suspect.
11. Interrogator should behave and talk the crime as though it is a normal occurrence not attach the great importance to it except that it has to be solved for professional reasons.
12. Interrogator should not express surprise or shocked when the suspect narrates the various facets of the crime, nor express condemnation or appreciation.
13. Interrogator should always keep the upper hand in the situation. Never allow the suspect to get on top of the situation.
14. Interrogator should choose his word and languages carefully.
15. Tap record the entire proceedings.
16. Patience pays: In his attempt to get out of the situation the suspect will lie. If the interrogator confronts him with contradictions, he will know that the game is up and will come clean.
17. Never confront the suspect physically with the witnesses. It will spoil the case, as the suspect will harbour hatred against the witnesses. He should see them only in the trial.
18. In the interrogation room, keep big pictures of the glory details of the crime, preferably colour photos. Do not refer to them at all. The suspect will notice them subconsciously, remorse will often take hold of him. When in a remorseful mood, he will more cooperative.
19. Interrogation is battle of wits. Never joint it unarmed. Keep your wits around.

Training and human rights education

In police training institutions, the trainees are given physical training, parade and other outdoor activities. Do they enjoy 'adequate self-esteem' when they are on the parade ground? If the allegations are true, then there was a time when the physical instructors used to titter indecent words, and to show undesirable signs etc. The most of the physical training instructors is accustomed to cause excessive fatigue to the trainees by forcing them to do physical exercises and parade. Not only that the trainees in such situations lose their self esteem, but also they develop possible hostility towards everyone including their teachers.

A person who respects themselves will respect others. This is a simple principle. Self esteem means to respect the human dignity and equal rights of people. How does the physical fitness programme help police trainees for developing self-esteem? In some police training institutions several months of outdoor training is given to make the passing out parade very colourful. Once the passing out parade is over people try to forget what they do in the parade ground.

Therefore in addition to the harsh physical training of the outdoor, police should want a conducive and tranquil classroom for injecting them with concept and know-how of the human rights standards of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, other international human rights legal instruments and provisions in the Indian Constitution.

Again regular refreshers training to update their understanding of the human rights value during carrying out their normal duties should be a heavy concern for the Government and higher authorities in police department.

Concluded ...

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* Jinine Laishramcha wrote this article for The Sangai Express
The writer is a human rights defender; MA Human Rights, IIHR, New Delhi; Certificate Course in Conflict Analysis, USIP, Washington DC and International Humanitarian Law Training, ICRC, Geneva and can be reached at lcjinine(at)gmail(dot)com
This article was webcasted on May 04 2011.

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