Rural Cops In India Watch TV To Improve Their Skills

Rural Cops In India Watch TV To Improve Their Skills

Hoot Editorial Team

A police officer in Vadodara arranges for his men to watch the Discovery Channel¿s Medical Detectives while they are on duty. He thinks it amounts to informal training that will improve their knowledge of forensic methods and their skills in gathering evidence.

The Discovery Channel in India is highly gratified. It received a letter earlier this year from a senior superintent of police in Vadodara Distrct in Gujarat, who told them that for two years he has been putting the schedule of Medical Detectives on the police wireless on the days that the programme was aired. He wanted his policemen to see it. Now he had arranged for the police stations in his district to get colour TV sets, and on the day that these were to be dedicated he wanted the channel to fly down someone to screen Medical Detectives.

Following up this story led to a heart warming tale of individual initiative in using media to enhance police skills. Keshav Kumar, who is now SP of Vadodara Rural says it began two years ago when he was Superintendent of Police at Junagarh district. "I used to watch this programme and I thought, why shouldn¿t my men also see it. So I used to send out a message on police wireless on those days. I did that for a year and a half and then in January this year I was transferred to Vadodara. I started doing the same, but when I checked I found that the police stations did not have television."

Kumar says he thought television had the potential to enhance the skills of the policemen in his range. There was a manufacturer of TV sets in his area. So he got permission from the Director General of Police in his state, negotiated with the manufacturer, and arranged for the purchase of 54 sets for the 18 police stations under his charge, as well as the police outposts that come under the jurisdiction of these stations . The money required---Rs 4.19 lakhs--- came out of the police welfare fund.

What is TV supposed to do for the cops? They can watch these special programmes, as well as news about the law and order situation, he says. "My concept goes to the basic root---our policemen are not adequately trained. After their basic training they seldom get enough in-service training. In any case formal training is boring. Watching useful programmes on TV is informal training. Without any stress you can simply sit there and see." He adds that the concept of forensic training for policemen is not adequately there.

Having acquired the TV sets Kumar thought of organising a seminar on the occasion of their dedication. While the programme shows the use of equipment not available to Indian policemen, Kumar got the director of the forensic lab at Ahmedabad--- which he says has the reputation of being one of the best equipped in the country---to come down to his district and conduct a half day seminar on the use of forensic techniques in investigation. At hand to benefit from this were some 150 cops of various ranks, from the Additional Director General in charge of training to inspectors from Kumar¿s rural range. From 9 am to 1 pm on the 3oth of May they were lectured on how forensic methods can help investigating cases involving drugs, explosions, arson, and murder.

In the afternoon the Channel screened an episode of Medical Detectives and a promo of their upcoming series New Detectives. This series too reconstructs how research and scientific advancements help resolve difficult cases. As a follow up to this TV-for-better-skills initiative, this police officer is deploying the resources at his command to make the most of the new TV sets. He has acquired a CD player which is substantially cheaper than a VCR and plugs into TV, to show a