Food for Thought: Odisha’s Keonjhar police starts a canteen with a theme on cops in Bollywood

ODISHA’s Keonjhar has a unique canteen now. Named as Cops Bollywood Canteen, this open air canteen inaugurated recently in Reserve Police Line of Keonjhar, has a theme on police in Bollywood, possibly the first of its kind where food, cops and Bollywood go hand-in-hand. IPS Association in a social media post has thanked Superintendent of Police of Keonjhar for creating this hangout place for police personnel to de-stress themselves. Some of the characters choose n in the canteen include…

IAS Association condemns Army personnel's assault of a police station and attack on deputy commissioner in Arunachal Pradesh

THE IAS Association today (Tuesday) condemned the assault of a police station and the attack on a deputy commissioner and superintendent police in West Kameng district of Arunachal Pradesh by about a hundred Army personnel. In a Twitterer post, the Association said: “This is unimaginable and strongly condemned. Assault on Police Station, attack on DC and SP by uniformed personnel is unacceptable. Strongly condemned and hope that the…

Police Commemoration Day: …and the story of Chinese Army’s attack on an Indian police team in Ladakh in Oct 1959

“Everyday we fight crime. Today, we fight our tears as well”— As the nation pays respect to police martyrs today on Police Commemoration Day, the story of October 21, 1959 when 10 police personnel at Hot Springs area in north eastern Ladakh were killed by the Chinese Army, needs to be retold. Every year, October 21 is observed as Police Commemoration Day. In fact, until the autumn of 1959, it was the Indian Police who manned the 2,500-mile-long border of India with Tibet. It was October 20, 1959, a day before India’s brave policemen lost their lives, three police parties were launched from Hot Springs in preparation for...

Upper middle class faces more problems with Income-Tax than the police, says PM Modi

PRIME minister Narendra Modi said on Monday from the ramparts of the Red Fort that he wanted to change the situation where people, particularly those belonging to upper middle class, are scared of Income-Tax authorities. PM further said, upper middle class families face more problems with Income-Tax than the police. “This situation needs to change. And I am already working on it. I will ensure situation changes”, he said. Modi later tweeted:

From awareness on stalking to guiding a complainant, cops now use Twitter at ease

Hyderabad Police advt on stalking

IF YOU are a police officer and active in Twitter, get ready for queries in social media too. And mind it, it’s not just queries alone, if you can’t crack the case, be prepared to get adverse feedback on your “inability” – and that too, all in an open forum. First, here is a recent Twitter conversation of a complainant who lost his laptop with the Bengaluru police which through its official Twitter handle trying to guide the complainant:

Who is this brave Punjab Police officer? And how he rescued a woman teacher from Sirhind canal

A Twitter photo showing Bathinda DSP's daring plunge 

“Daring plunge by Punjab police DSP to save lady protestor from drowning. Such motivated officers keep the flag high!!”: When a Delhi police officer Madhur Verma released this photo on a social media site on Sunday with the above-mentioned caption, there followed hundreds of reaction. And rightly so. BoI here gives you more about this Bathinda-based deputy superintendent of police (DSP) that you see in this photo, date and place of the incident, and also the circumstances in which a lady teacher jumped into the canal:

Photo of a swanky Bengaluru police station attracts crowd in social media; any clue on CBI glass building?

KARNATAKA cadre IPS officer Abhishek Goyal, someone who did B Tech in computer sciences from IIT-Delhi before joining the police service, is a regular in the world of Twitter. On Monday, he posted a few photos with this caption: “new Police Station building in Bengaluru, Karnataka. Wow! #betterThanMyOffice”, a post that left many people to…

Rs 50 crore earmarked in Budget for building a befitting National Police Memorial

A part of National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial in Washington

THE new government’s maiden budget presented on Thursday set aside a sum of Rs 50 crore in the current financial year for building a befitting National Police Memorial. “The nation is equally indebted to the officers and the jawans of the Police forces, including the central armed police forces, who are constantly engaging with the enemy within and in the process sacrificing their lives in the line of duty,” finance minister Arun Jaitley said in his budget speech. In fact, National Police Memorial located in central London commemorates about 4000 police officers killed on duty, whereas in Washington’s Judiciary Square lies the…

Manmohan Singh asks top cops to find “creative solutions” to curb misuse of social media

PM and Home Minister with a section of cops

PRIME Minister Manmohan Singh has asked the top cops from across India to find creative solutions to curb the misuse of social media and SMSes while reiterating the merits of the social media, particularly the ease of communication through it. The following is what PM said while addressing at the annual conference of DGPs in New Delhi on Saturday:

Tourism Ministry Moots Idea: Let's have a cadre of Tourist Police

TO INSTIL a sense of confidence among tourists visiting key Indian destinations, the tourism ministry has mooted the idea of creating a new police cadre, called Tourist Police, on the same line as it exists in many parts of the world. Union tourism minister K Chiranjeevi said on Thursday that the new cadre could be built either by...

Research proposals invited from police officers on Anna and Ramdev agitations

Baba Ramdev

FOR Indian police, there are lessons to be learned from agitations of Anna Hazare and Baba Ramdev, and that arising out of Nirbhaya gang-rape case. Now, Hyderabad-based SVP National Police Academy has invited research proposals from serving and retired police officers on the following themes:

Sexual Crimes: 7 secretaries to “personally monitor” Action Plan

EVERY month, secretaries of seven key ministries will have to personally monitor the implementation of newly-framed time-bound action plan to strengthen police and administration to combat sexual crimes against women. That’s not all. The concerned secretaries will have to…

Home minister Sushil Kumar Shinde's take on anonymity in social media Vs. police investigators

A woman police officer receiving police medal

ANONYMITY in social media is testing capacities of even most experienced police investigator in India, Union home minister Sushil Kumar Shinde said while inaugurating the annual conference of DGPs and IGPs in New Delhi on Thursday. “Police forces will have to develop skills in this area (in social networking) not just for locating malicious...

An April Fool Day advisory to police turns relevant now, and for all departments

AS leaking information willingly or unwillingly has become a trend in recent time, the government of India’s advisory on media dated April 1, 2010 to police is an interesting read. It might have been released on an April Fool day last year, but it’s quite relevant for non-police forces too particularly when the government has found itself in a state of helplessness in dealing with RTI and media. Here are the excerpts of the exhaustive and consolidated advisory on media policy of police, as recorded in MHA annual report, 2010-11.

* In a case such as conviction or acquittal that attracts the interest of the media, a specific time may be fixed everyday when the designated officer would make an appropriate statement on the investigation.

* In the first 48 hours there should be no unnecessary release of information except about the facts of the incident and that the investigation has been taken up.

* The general tendency to give piecemeal information/clues on a daily/regular basis, with regard to the progress/various lines of investigation, should be strongly discouraged so that the investigations are not compromised and the criminals/suspects do not take undue advantage of information shared by the Police authorities about the likely course of the investigations.

* Meticulous compliance with the legal provisions and Court guidelines regarding protection of the identity of juveniles and rape victims should be ensured, and under no circumstances should the identity of juveniles and victims in rape cases be disclosed to the media.

* Due care should be taken to ensure that there is no violation of the legal, privacy and human rights of the accused/victims.

* Arrested persons should not be paraded before the media.

* Faces of arrested persons whose Test Identification Parade is required to be conducted should not be exposed to the media.

* No opinionated and judgmental statements should be made by the police while briefing the media.

* As far as possible no interview of the accused/victims by the media should be permitted till the statements are recorded by the police.

* The professional tradecraft of policing and technical means used for the detection of criminal cases should not be disclosed as it alerts potential criminals to take appropriate precautions while planning their next crime.

* In cases where National security is at stake, no information should be shared with the media till the whole operation is over or until all the accused persons have been apprehended.

* The modus operandi of carrying out the operations should not be made public. Only the particulars of apprehended persons and details of recovery should be revealed to the media on completion of the operations.

* There should not be any violation of court directions and other guidelines issued by the authorities from time to time on this matter.

* Preferably, there should be one officer designated as the Public Relations Officer to handle the immediate information needs of all media persons and give the correct and factual position of any crime incident.

* As and when instances of misreporting or incorrect reporting of facts/details pertaining to an incident or the department comes to notice, a suitable rejoinder should immediately be issued and, in more serious cases, the matter should be taken up at the appropriate levels for remedial action.