Police divided when it comes to moral views

Kozhikode: Liberal forward-looking officers in the police force are facing a serious challenge from the moralistic, old-fashioned colleagues, who even show the audacity to disobey orders from senior officers and act according to their political and moralistic whims when a law and order situation arises.

Kozhikode city police commissioner A V George learnt this hard lesson on December 7 when his own subordinates carried out a sexist, vulgar verbal assault on the Kiss on the Street activists.

They systematically disobeyed the commissioner, who repeatedly gave orders not to lock up the arrested protesters inside the dark room but keep them in the open yard inside the city traffic control office. He gave directions to his junior officials to allow in anyone who wanted to meet the protesters and also provide them drinking water.

Instead, these uniformed moralists continued to lock up the arrested protesters and tried to harass them. Both men and women cops were taking turns to mentally harass the arrested protesters.

“We agree that not every one of us is in the same state of mind and many still are highly moralistic about such issues. Many of our constables and civil police officers are bad in their behaviour and treat everyone like criminals. When an issue happens on the street, we find it difficult to contain such behaviour,” Moidheen Kutty, assistant commissioner of police, told Deccan Chronicle.

City commissioner of police, A V George said he has ordered an inquiry into the issue. “We are planning to conduct orientation classes for our personnel. Police should be decent to a decent individual and sometimes  need to be tough against a criminal. But indecent behavior and disobedience cannot be tolerated,” he said.

Officials say the issue needs to be addressed from the very basics of police training. Officials suggest a complete overhaul of our police  training modules to make policemen more humane and professional.