Sunday Times 2
Police HQ jumps on the showbiz bandwagon
Much publicity has been given these days, via media, by the Acting Inspector General of Police to large monetary rewards on offer for detections of drunken driving.
The matter of rewards to police officers is dealt with in the Police Gazette Part 11 (PG 2). The PG 2 is an ‘Official Document, Entrusted in Confidence to Police Officers Only’ — and it is so printed at the top of every PG 2 notification.
Prior to 1996, police rewards received the desired confidence. I remember, in the early 1960s, Inspector Carlyle Dias, who retired in the rank of SSP, being awarded the bravery medal and a handsome monetary reward, for risking his life to save a person from drowning. I came to know of this only when I read the PG 2. It did not leak to the newspapers. Similarly, many other police officers were recognised and rewarded for extraordinary good work. The details appeared only in the PG 2.
Older police officers were aghast, when in 1996, the then Police Chief W.B. Rajaguru, in violation of the stipulated confidence, invited the media, including photojournalists, to his office to get publicity for rewards he was granting from the Police Reward Fund.
The incumbent Acting IGP has gone even further into showbiz, making a song and dance about offering rewards to police officers, in advance, for detecting drunken driving. Apart from breaking the confidence stipulated in the PG 2, the intended incentive to detect drunken driving will also be an incitement to corruption such as ‘touching up’ cases. It will also provide a strong defence to anyone challenging the police detection.
There is an association known as the ‘Association of Chiefs of Police’ (ACP) whose membership is for Retired IGPs, S/DIGs and DIGs. In the interest of all retired police officers, and serving police officers, may I commend the Acting IGP to the ACP for briefing on appropriate action, as and when it is deemed necessary. This should continue until proper training is imparted to the present lot in the Police hierarchy. That is a top priority.
(The writer is a Retired Senior Superintendent of Police and former Chairman of the Police Central Welfare Council.)