[Answered] “Modern times need modern methods.” In light of this discuss the need of modernisation of police force in India.

With changing world, police and law and order challenges are increasing day by day. With change in nature of crime with threats of cyber crime, suicide bombings, outdated police force need modernisation. More trained staff and new technological investigating methods is need of the hour.

Issues related to police forces:

1. Lack of technological capabilities necessary to perform quality investigations.
2. Politicisation and allegiance towards ruling party.
3. Lowest police-to-population ratio. Due to which people of India are least secured people on the globe.
4. Corruption is a major challenge.
5. Lack of effective accountability mechanisms.
6. Registering a criminal case against a police officer is a long and unwieldy process.
7. Lack of effective means to collect and analyse the intelligence data collected.
8. Deteriorating quality of state investigation departments.
9. Lack of coordination within police departments.
10. Representation of women and depressed caste is low which make them insensitive towards them.
11. Digitalisation of crimes became more prominent way of crime today.
12. Escalating violence resulting from caste conflicts including the most recent Dalit uprising, farmers woes across the country.
13. Todays wide spread protects across the country are prompted by militant elements from outside.
14. Nature of crime has also changed which require sophistication method of Investigation and detection.
15. Apart from the core function of maintaining law and order, police personnel carry out various other functions such as traffic management, disaster rescue and removal of encroachments.  These extra obligations lead to overburdening of the police force which have negative consequences on their efficiency and performance.
16. One of the reasons for low conviction rates in India is poor quality of investigation by police.  The police lack training and expertise required to conduct professional investigations. They also have insufficient legal knowledge and inadequate forensic and cyber infrastructure.
17. In India, control over the police force is with the executive. This has to led to abuse of police personnel and interference with their decision-making authority.

What is needed?

1. Extra functions like traffic should be carried out by other government departments or private agencies.
2. States should have specialised investigation units within the police force for better investigation of crimes.
3. Need to strengthen Criminal Justice System and grassroots level policing institutions.
4. Strengthen its investigative capabilities and emergency response infrastructure.
5. More investment is needed in the recruitment procedure.
6. Better training, better pay and allowances and creating a system that rewards initiatives need to be incorporate.
7. Increase budget expenditure on police.
8. Improving police infrastructure.
9. Independent Complaints Authority.
10. Need to adopt latest IT- enabled services.
11. Police should be made more gender sensitive. 33% women reservation in police should be implemented
12. There is need for broader political awareness about the need for police reform. Some states like Kerala and Telangana have tried to take the process forward.

State police forces are primarily in charge of local issues such as crime prevention and investigation, and maintaining law and order. Police force need to adopt modern methods like forensics, data analysation etc to ensure timely justice.