SMART Policing Survey, 2021: Bihar, Uttar Pradesh police lowest among all States on perception of ‘sensitivity’, says survey

What is the News?

Indian Police Foundation (IPF) has released the SMART Policing Survey 2021.

Note: Indian Police Foundation (IPF) is a multidisciplinary think tank and policy advocacy platform.

What is a Smart Policing Survey?

The SMART Policing idea was envisioned, articulated and introduced by the Prime Minister at the Conference of DGPs of State and Central Police Organizations in 2014.

Aim: To gather information on citizens’ perceptions of the impact of the SMART policing initiative and to gauge public perceptions of the quality of policing in India and the level of public trust in the police.

Parameters: The survey had 10 sets of questionnaires which included:

• Six indices of “Competence-Based Indicators” dealing with issues such as police sensitivity, accessibility, responsiveness and technology adoption among others;
• Three indicators of “Value-Based indicators” deal with the integrity of the police; and
• One index of “Trust”

Based on these indicators, scores are set on a scale of 1 to 10 and are indicative of the levels of citizen satisfaction, with a score of 10 being the highest level of satisfaction.

What are the key findings?

Topped by: Andhra Pradesh and Telangana topped the Index with a SMART score of 8.11 and 8.10 respectively. These states were followed by Assam, Kerala and Sikkim.

Bottom States: Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand and Punjab were ranked at the bottom of the survey.

Region-wise: Southern states and some in the Northeast fared better on most policing indices compared to states in the north.

Perception of Police: The majority of citizens (a weighted average of 66.93%) believes that the police are doing their job well and strongly support the police. This is despite being attacked for insufficient sensitivity, declining public confidence and growing concerns about the quality of policing.

Source: This post is based on the article “Bihar, Uttar Pradesh police lowest among all States on perception of ‘sensitivity’, says survey” published by The Hindu on 21st Nov 2021.