Indian Police Reform

[isubodh]

Wonder what SHOs and above and IPS officers are measured on... how is their performance assessed ?

Count of FIRs or incidents

[Sachin]

What about cyber crime and police units that fight it? Where does that come in?

These are new additions in the state police. Few city police/commissionerates have cyber crime police stations exclusive for them. They are considered a separate wing within the police force, and the cyber crime police stations may not be there in every district. I have not seen exclusive selections for Cyber Crime units. The constabulary gets selected in the usual way, and if they are willing and have some computer awareness they can work in cyber crime units. They also get some training on usage of cyber security tools. From what I have read from media is that the cyber crime units also have 'ethical hackers' working with them free or for a nominal honorarium. Again there could be permenant staff among the constabulary, but officers (mainly Inspectors & above) gets transferred to other units routinely. One of their main jobs (and which they have becomes champs are) is to track down cell phones used by suspects or criminals on the run.

Wonder what SHOs and above and IPS officers are measured on... how is their performance assessed ?

This is at least a gray area for me. But from what a police man said; their lives are dependent on ACR and PR. ACR = Annual Confidential Report and PR = Punishment Rules. Both are very subjective (dependent on the superior official) and there is nothing like a Goals & Objectives like what IT companies have. ACR is prepared twice a year, and PR happens when some rule is violated. A few things which get monitored at an SHO level are ; UI (Under investigation) cases, Cases pending in court, Long pending cases and even the number of motor vehicle petty case targets met. SPs also usually gets assessed on the cases pending at the district level. IPS officer's performance measurement is a blank area for me.

[nachiket]

Sachin saar, thank you for that comprehensive explanation. Clears up a lot of questions I've had for a while.

[Tanaji]

To add to what Sachinji has said, every state has a broadly similar set up. The police has at the very least 2 main wings: Law and order and crime branch. Big cities will have more sub divisions, for example, traffic, economic offences wing etc. Crime Branch will have other sub sections such as narcotics, social offences wing, prevention (this one kept track of history sheeters) . Special branch is also another unit that deals with intelligence and for some reason also tracks long term aliens in the city. EOW is a wing on its own in Mumbai for obvious reasons.

[Cyrano]

Thank you all for these informative posts.