In a pluralistic society, proportionate delinquency, perversion, violence, insanity, male and female criminality, traditional blue-collar crimes, traffic violations, etc., are bound to exist. To combat all these types of crimes and to bring about public order and tranquillity, the policeman’s job becomes tougher and tougher every day. The police act as a social service institution. It settles street brawls amicably, brings about the unification and cementation of disrupted families, takes all precautions to save life and property, quells riots, and springs into action whenever there is a natural calamity like an earthquake, floods, cyclone, or emergencies like fire, etc.
The police take on regulatory measures in traffic to ensure the safety of citizens and maintain public decency for the harmonious and smooth functioning of society. With knowledge of psychology, they deal with situations in an appropriate manner and take due care to curb crime by preventing and detecting it. This is possible only with a tremendous amount of patience, sacrifice, skillfulness, restraint, and high morale. From whatever angle one views the pivotal policeman, it is essential that he must be a man of stature—educated, intelligent, alert, truly interested in his work, and possessing good judgment, initiative, and courage.
In this context, it is worth highlighting the immense and intricate difficulties faced by the police. The professional hazards of policing are inexpressible. A policeman is at the peak of criticism at all stages, whether it is mob control, crime control, or public order maintenance. A similar situation holds when seeking convictions for the cases presented in courts. By and large, at every stage, the police are at the crossroads of criticism despite the selfless service rendered. This only reveals and stands as an indicator that citizen expectations are quite high, and the police are expected to meet the standards of complete citizen satisfaction. In other words, citizens have high hopes and undaunted faith, and they look to the police for solutions.
The new dimensions are focused on a police service rather than a police force. The new dimensions of police personality and image emphasize the need for society to recognize personnel who realize that the service has social responsibilities and that they are the saviours of society from criminals and their manifestations. The policeman should see himself as an intelligent social worker, a preventer of crime, and a community servant. He should consider his profession one of the learned fields, and himself an expert in the adjustment of delicate and complex human relations. In short, his work is an art dependent upon a thorough familiarity with the rapidly developing social sciences.
The writer holds an MSc in Criminology
By Majid YousufÂ