The debate whether police is a service or a force has once become the talk of the town as the George Floyd incident and the Tehkal incident in Peshawar reflects police cruelty and inhumanity. As the police “use of physical force” becomes center stage, analysts are now coming up with new definitions to explain police brutality that rests on the use of unjustified interrogations leading to harassment, abusive language and threatening tone. There is no denying in the fact that it is the duty of the police institution to enforce law and order situation in a state of chaos however, in doing so, they should not cross the fine dividing line between proper and inappropriate use of force. If the police force crosses that fine line, then police becomes nothing but a framework of non-negotiable intimidating force.
Unanimously, the citizens’ compatibility with police in Pakistan appears to be miserable primarily because the two parties always have a face-off at the backdrop of worsening situations. In this regard, calling the whole police service bad and incompetent might be too simple minded or overstated. However, when cases such as Tehkal incident emerge before us, it is necessary to find out the reasons why police behaves so brutally.
Discussed under the lieu of sociological and psychological theories, it can be deduced that police might behave harshly because its overall culture is violent and desensitizing.
Although the police reforms through the 2017 Police Act were enforced in KP, the fundamental concern remained unaddressed. With the focus now on revitalizing the dealings with the public by adopting a more socio-political approach, such reforms appear to be workable on paper only. Therefore, resting upon the “watchman-style”, the autonomy and power the service exerts remains unbridled and chances of corruption within the police department manifolds.
The best way forward in this regard is that the policy makers and concerned authorities should work towards making the police department a service-oriented entity on which people can have trust and faith on rather than becoming terrorized by it that ultimately compels them to take law in their hands and rebel making chaotic situations even worse.
Hadia Mukhtar
Karachi
