The Cuddalore district police have introduced a system to get feedback from the public on police personnel who they approache to get their grievances redressed.
This feedback system has been introduced in all 52 police stations, including six All-Women Police Stations in the district.
Cuddalore Superintendent of Police M. Sree Abhinav introduced the system by having a dedicated team of personnel under his supervision to discreetly collect information from the public on whether they faced any harassment or indifferent attitude.
“The system started with passport verification to prevent cops from asking tips. Public interface with police is only through passport verification and police verification certificate for jobs. The team contacts the passport applicants on their mobile phones at random to get information on whether they faced any harassment or whether there was demand from the cops for money to process their applications,” Mr. Sree Abhinav told The Hindu.
Police stations are service delivery centres and the idea is to gauge assessment of the services rendered, he said. The system has now been extended to other services including registration of FIR/CSR.
Once an FIR is registered, the mobile phone number of the complainant is automatically generated and collected from the server. The team collects the feedback from the public on a form on all issues, including land disputes.
The applicants and complainants are randomly selected from various police sub-divisions and jurisdictions on a daily basis to enquire about the quality of service.
Identity confidential
The team alone has access to the feedback received from the applicants and complainants in all stations. The identity is kept confidential and the public too do not know the police personnel who collect the feedback.
“Though we have also received negative feedback, including complaints of harassment and delay in registering FIRs, the overall feedback has been satisfactory,” said an inspector attached to the team. The negative feedback is directly forwarded to the SP and the officers are pulled up and warned.
In some instances, they are transferred to the Armed Reserve, the inspector added. This system would go on as its purpose is to augment the interface between the public and the police on sound and healthy grounds.
