Men and material

 In order to enhance policing in Nagaland, the state Police department has envisaged a slew of measures that are clearly impressive. These include creation of Special Task Force(STF) where jawans are trained to tackle more sophisticated crimes such as- in house intersection during kidnap and ransom situation, car or bus(or truck) jacking and search on suspected dens of criminals. In addition, the state police plans to create another specialised unit called State Security Guard(SSG) for providing special security to VVIPs and for anti-ambush situations. Also to enhance movement for the STF and SSG , the police has decided to purchase Isuzu pick up vehicles. The other list includes modernisation of weaponry with purchase of latest rifles- X-95 Tavor Rifles and Ghatak 7.62 rifles. To complement investigation, the police plans to have Cyber Crime labs all over the district headquarters. A kind of sainik school type of curriculum is expected to be introduced in 12 government schools to instil discipline. Further, there will be rationalisation of manpower, re-training of personnel to various police academies besides promoting community policing by 2020. The police also envisages increase in number of personnel to be trained for establishing Tourist Police, which was unfolded during last year’s Hornbill Festival. In addition, the state police has unveiled an impressive set of uniform for the special forces. In short, the state police is moving on towards an impressive path under its “modernisation” plan. It may, however be pertinent to point out, that modernisation of the police forces does not begin or end with procurement of sophisticated weaponry and equipments or impressive uniforms as well as raising of new armed police battalions, special forces, IRB etc. It evident that when police modernisation has been going on in full steam for several years, there has been little change in the character of the force. Over the past four decades there have been a multitude of Committees, Panel, Reports and Recommendations, with clearly laid out roadmaps and supported by detailed descriptions on the kind of design and overhaul that is needed. Unfortunately, most of these reports end up in a black hole or gather dust in a filing cabinet. In fact, the Chief Justice of India in July 2009, lamented on the disinclination of states to implement police reform. The reason is that most of the states are not too interested in effecting Police Reform since it would mean loosening the political and bureaucratic grip on the force in all spheres. If Police Reform was to be implemented, it would impact the selection system, training, procurement, promotion, transfer and size of the force. In many states, police recruitment system is a sham where thousands are taken in on the basis of extraneous considerations. Instilling professionalism in the police means ensuring independence in functioning, transparency and accountability. Transparency implies that the processes of decision-making and discipline-enforcement are open and visible to the public. It also comes with placing the right man or woman in the right place who would be amply rewarded for their achievements and also held accountable for their sins of omission or commission. Nagaland Police is enjoys a good reputation as a professional fighting force and given the right leadership, training and motivation, the personnel have the potential of achieving new heights. This and not only equipment or uniform is the other more vital ingredient for true modernisation.