A Mirror to the Police: Search for Transparency and Accountability in Karnataka, India
A Mirror to the Police: Search for Transparency and Accountability in Karnataka, India
Author: Dr. Meena Nair
Abstract: In democratic societies, the active face of state regulation is seen through its police activity. The police department is generally considered to be more non-transparent than the other departments of the government. Public Affairs Centre made an attempt to look into this aspect through a study of police stations in Karnataka state (India), which are the focal points of direct citizen interaction with the police personnel to seek protection of their life and property and for grievance redress.
Public Affairs Centre (PAC) (www.pacindia.org), a non-profit organization dedicated to the cause of improving governance, is well-known for its Citizen Report Cards (CRCs) on public services that demand transparency and accountability from governments. Using the CRC approach (see www.citizenreportcard.com), a systematic survey of 100 police stations covering 500 police personnel and 2000 users of police services including complainants, was carried out in the southern state of Karnataka. The user survey focused on their experiences in reporting, registering and resolving grievances or problems. Observations of police stations and interviews with police personnel elicited views on how well they are able to process and settle the complainants’ problems and the difficulties and constraints they face in the course of this and other everyday work.
The evidence generated through the CRC survey and observations was used to stimulate the leadership of the State Police Department to create an agenda for reform to bring in greater transparency and accountability. The Director General of Police (DGP) of the Karnataka State Police Department (KSPD) with whom PAC partnered, used the findings to initiate specific reforms to empower people with greater information, create a forum for resolving complainant problems and reduce the scope for corruption. The implementation of these reforms took place within a short period after the study report was submitted.
The study, conducted in early 2010, demonstrates how the systematic harvest of citizen feedback contributes significantly to the improvement of existing systems and transparency, and energizes the department to be more citizen-friendly. This was possible because of the partnership between the DGP who was a champion of reforms, with an independent think tank, to gather feedback from the concerned stakeholders. This paper2thus, is divided into sections that take the reader through the conduct of the study, its findings, the implications and followup actions that highlight the willingness of a ‘secretive’ department to be transparent and accountable.
This paper draws heavily from a recent report published by PAC based on a study carried out for the Karnataka State Police Department (KSPD), the authors of which are Dr. Meena Nair, Dr. K. Prabhakar and Ms. Prarthana Rao.
Kindly cite this paper as:
Meena Nair, "A Mirror to the Police: Search for Transparency and Accountability in Karnataka, India", Presented at the First Global Conference on Transparency Research at Rutgers University-Newark (2011)