THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Even as
Kerala police has topped the states where the public is satisfied with the performance of police, when it comes to trust the rank is down to seven.
A joint survey by NGOs Common Cause and Centre for the Study of Developing Societies (CSDS) published last month, said 51.5% in Kerala are ‘fully satisfied’ by the performance of police. In contrast only 29.5% said they ‘highly trust’ the police. The survey was held in 22 states.
Former state police chief Jacob Punnoose said while trust perception is influenced by adverse stories, satisfaction stems from direct experience of people who deal with police. “Trust depends on several factors like politicalsensitivity,exposuretointernational policing systems and educational levels,” he said.
The survey also places Kerala among the first four states, where people are not fearful of police. It ranks fourth behind Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand and Haryana in this criterion. Interestingly, southern states including Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Andhra and Telangana are at the bottom of the list, where most people replied they fear the police.
The fear index was prepared by asking four questions -- fear of being arrested by the police for no reason, fear of the police coming to your house, fear of being falsely implicated in police cases and fear of sexual harassment or eve teasing by the police. People from Kerala did not think the police would discriminate them on the lines of caste, community or religion.
But a question on whether they would allow their son/daughter to visit police stations alone as a victim of crime, 53% said they are unwilling. "It depends on how possessive and protective you are about the child,” said Jacob Punnoose. While 67% did not think police discriminates based on gender,13% thought otherwise. Also, 62% women from Kerala denied gender discrimination by police.
While most respondents from other states felt the highest interference in policing was from politicians, Kerala topped the states which think the police is independent.
The survey report said the state performed well on parameters like positive police contact and autonomy. It performed poorly on two disposal indices (crimes against SCs & STs, women & children).
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