Policeman's death on the street and unappreciated facts

The historical perspective and the continuity
Our policing methods developed over time from very rough and ready origins. The first purpose of our police force is to support the State and thus the primary role is a political one. The State, rather than the law, is supreme and the major enemy of the police is the so-called political subversive rather than the ordinary criminal. Our police have been more accountable to the superior officers than the public opinion or the law. Duties are tabulated and there is little or no room for discretion. Such traditions or practices would dictate a very different relationship between police and society.

The role of police in our country have made them appear as an agency more to implement and enforce the objectives of the government in power and to help the affluent sections of the society. The police is not looked at as an independent and impartial agency for encouragement of law and order. Many policemen suffer from egocentricity and self-opinionated ideas and often act contrary to public interests and expectations. A good many policemen feel that people should acknowledge their authority with abject submission and remain ever-ready to oblige them in every possible way.

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Somehow policemen in our parlance feel that the enrolment in police force automatically gives them the right to enjoy many rights and privileges. Since police are armed with coercive authority, the policemen get the idea that people must fear them and oblige. They exercise discretion by becoming indiscriminate all too often.

Political behaviour and aberrations
Our politicians betray a pathetic lack of appreciation of the imperative that the foundation of a civilised society depends upon the effective and impartial working of some corrective institutions, prominent among which is the public service. They appear to be perilously oblivious to the reality that the regulatory outfit of police must be demonstrably impartial to ensure public confidence in the government ability of the ruling class. The ruling parties in their misplaced exuberance forget that the police was the dominant visible symbol of repressive imperial alien power and that de-colonisation requires large scale behavioural and attitudinal changes of the political masters and the public servants belonging to this vital organ of the state. Thus while admonitions from the pulpit come in plenty for rational behaviour on the part of enforcement officials, in reality, unhealthy pressures are regularly exerted to carry out the wishes of the ruling coterie in the most expeditious manner. It is the continuance of such regressive mentality that has brought us to the present lamentable scenario wherein the police outfit has been described a lackey of the political government. Nothing could be more sad and frustrating than that.

Real life policing
Law enforcement in Bangladesh entails upon the police to perform in the worst of conditions and with such rigour that the glamorous exterior image of the force overshadows the challenges encountered in role enactment which are often life threatening and endanger the personnel on duty and also off-duty. The functions of the police encompass preservation of law and order to safeguard people from attack and to protect property, among others. The society expects the cop to play the varied roles with equal elan. He helps and saves but also uses force and makes arrest. This roller-coaster ride is a process difficult to understand functionally and incomprehensible emotionally.

The rigours of working for long hours without rest, meagre remuneration and inadequate living conditions and rotating shifts make it clear why policing is a high stress occupation. The police are expected to accomplish mood swings from loving father, understanding spouse to a lathi-wielding defender of law combatting a riotous mob. The job makes great demand on the mental, emotional and physical capabilities of the officer, demands that are all too often so stressful that they begin to destroy the individual.

Law enforcement tends to impose a higher degree of stress and a multiplicity of stressful situations on the individual than do most other professions. In the course of his duty, the cop encounters the dark side of human nature and thus with the growing incidence of crime and widening role expectations, the mental and physical health of policemen assumes greater significance than before. In Bangladesh, stresses are frequently triggered from social change, economic conditions, police organisation, the total criminal justice system and the demands made on policeman's time and of his family.

The organisational culture and the impact
It is a sad commentary that until now for a policeman in Bangladesh the focus is always on the job to be done. People have to last a lifetime and strenuous tasks such as policing eventually become too arduous and exacting. Therefore, the special vulnerability of the police as an occupational group to job stress and burnout deserves recognition with a view to looking for the solutions to the problems. The search may impact on operational procedures and future training and illustrate the potential dangers of certain physical and psychological responses which may be amenable to modification through training and other interventions.

On the street level, the police job is fraught with contradictions and inconsistencies. The duties of the police officer depend upon such diverse factors as the law, court decisions, political climate, community pressures and personality of the commander amongst others. The consequent role ambiguity is associated with high job-related tension.

A police officer's role in contemporary Bangladesh is rather paradoxical in nature. He comes across conflicting situations when he finds that he has to enforce directives which are not strictly legal and which the public wishes that the police would discreetly ignore. Fulfilling the expectations of the public and obligation to his organisational role poses a very difficult situation causing stress to individual officer. This role conflict occurs when simultaneous advent of two or more sets of pressures are such that compliance with one would make more difficult compliance with the other. Therefore, the greatly increased conflicts of role expectations, organisational and institutional constraints, unrealistic demands and dilemmas of the cop in uniform need to be examined explicitly.

The work situation and the image
Looking into the travails of the police one would find that police work is arduous, often dirty and unpleasant and sometimes dangerous. Night work is a standard feature of their life. They are not paid for overtime work. They too often work on holidays and during festivals. While illustrating the process of dehumanisation in the department culture of the police, it has been observed that prolonged absence of any family life and absence of nearness to children deprive the policeman of the feel of family life. Absence of reasonable vacation coupled with increasing task pressures drive policeman to do wrong things. A little bit of sadism also creeps in as he is made to sacrifice all he has and receive public condemnation as reward.

Most of us in Bangladesh are familiar with the sloppy, discourteous, rude, aggressive and bully figure in police uniform but we do not seem to realise that policemen are largely underpaid, overworked, demoralised, inadequately trained and equipped and subject to political interference, feared as a persecutor rather than respected as a protector, often callous and corrupt. Analysts have found that the police unrest is a cumulative result of managerial mismanagement, absence of a sense of accomplishment and growth, neglect of basic physiological and psychological needs, absence of effective grievance redress machinery, emasculated leadership, absence of participative management and unsatisfactory working and living conditions.

From brutalisation to endearment
Police organisation in Bangladesh needs to sit up and take note of the crucial problem of job stress. A comprehensive plan for the recognition, diagnosis and management of stress and stress control programmes for police personnel might help resolve the problem. The subordinate officials who are the most stressed groups should be given counseling for better coping. Both the individuals and the organisation must participate in the stress resolution process.

The police organisation should engage the services of psychologist at the time of selection and placement and choose individuals more suitable to perform the job effectively. Right job redesigning may help reduce the stress levels. Clarifying the organisational goal in consonance with law may reduce stressful situations. The police organisation must look beyond the military model; reorient its structure, policies and procedures; provide adequate support and organisational intervention to the management of stress within the law enforcement agency. Our policemen are truly a stressed lot. Psychological services and trained psychologist must be made an integral part of the organisational setup.

The role of stress management training and intervention strategies in handling police stress should be an area of study. Longitudinal studies may be suitable to investigate the impact of police work on the individual's life and its impact on health, social and psychological well-being.

The endearment process of our police to the community has to be consciously divorced from past traditions. The police have to get closer to the people and at the same time deal with the challenges to the authority which is inherent in a pluralist society. So, the ruling politicians and the courts have to ensure the right use of authority. Instances are plenty where political interference with the administration and work of police has caused serious management and image problems. Our policemen need support from the guardians to minimise public suffering.

Lack of sensitisation
Our politicians have failed to sensitise our policemen in correctly understanding the rising expectations and aspirations of the people which result from the enunciation of national goals in the political sphere. Our policemen are not made to understand that any gap between the promise of constitutional ideal and the reality leads to strains and tensions which are mobilised for the 'politics of agitation'. There is still not adequate appreciation that the resultant politicisation of the masses and the development among them of a greater awareness of their rights and methods of achievement intensify the ferment and lead to confrontations with authority. Thus our policemen often come into conflict with the forces generated by the political system which they are intended not only to serve but also preserve. This delicacy and complexity is not adequately understood and impressed upon.

The net result of such a scenario is that the police is cast into a rigid adversarial relationship. Under such circumstances, the hallowed talks of endearing the police to the community and the lofty ideas of community policing sound hollow. In any venture of promotional efforts the real stakeholders are conspicuously absent. The outcome remains less than desirable.

Muhammad Nurul Huda is a former Secretary and IGP.