Lokniti-CSDS and Common Cause launched the Status of Policing in India Report (SPIR) 2019 on the tough working conditions of the police in India at the India International Centre on August 27, 2019. The release was followed by a panel discussion on ‘Indian Police and the Rule of Law in Practice.’

The participants of the panel discussion were Aruna Roy, social activist and founder of Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan, Prakash Singh, Former DGP, Uttar Pradesh, Assam and Border Security Force and Vrinda Grover, human rights lawyer and social activist. The discussion was chaired by Justice Jasti Chelameswar, Former Judge, Supreme Court of India and Former Chief Justice, Kerala and Gauhati High Courts.

SPIR 2019, providing policy-oriented insights into the conditions in which Indian police works, is the result of a yearlong teamwork of researchers, field investigators and data analysts at Lokniti-CSDS and Common Cause.

Lokniti-CSDS and Common Cause launched India’s first Status of Policing in India Report: A Study of Performance and Perceptions (SPIR 2018) in May 2018. It was based on an elaborate perception survey and analysed the performance of the police and the levels of citizens’ trust and satisfaction in their day to day working. The present report builds on the first SPIR, analysing sensitivities and service conditions of police personnel; their resources and infrastructure; patterns of their routine contact with common people; and the state of policing apparatus in the country.

The SPIR 2019 is first of its kind in India. The views of police personnel and their family members have been taken across India, and compared, on pressures faced by them and their vulnerabilities. Besides a survey of close to 12000 police personnel inside police stations or at their residences across India (21 States) the study also includes another sample of 10,595 of their family members who were interviewed. Comparisons are done State-wise to bring out the variations across India. The study covers the trying working conditions of police personnel, their meagre resources and infrastructure, crime investigation, diversity, people-police contact and police violence. The survey was designed to elicit perceptions of police personnel about their work environments, their sensitivities, attitudes about the society, and levels of capacities and professional skills. The study also uses official data to construct the big picture of policing and its resources in the States and to show the need gaps in various vital areas.

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