Police personnel of modern times have to be ‘smart’ in the true sense of the term, with prime minister Narendra Modi on Sunday unveiling an acronym with the same letters, urging cops to be strict and sensitive, modern and mobile, alert and accountable, reliable and responsive, and finally trained and techno-savvy. “Today’s police have to SMART, with each letter of the acronym having a definite and specific meaning. Only then will there be a new and big awakening among the huge police force that we have,” Modi said, addressing the 49th All India Conference of DGPs and IGPs here . Sunday was the last day of the two-day conference held for the first time outside the national capital.
Modi also asked the police force to lay more importance on intelligence, and said that there would be minimum need of arms and armed personnel if intelligence was good. “However sophisticated weapons and armed forces a nation may have, but the success in ensuring security to the people depends finally on quality intelligence,” the prime minister said. The prime minister also lamented the poor image police have got in the media, and particularly in the most popular medium of cinema, and even suggested asking film producers to produce films where the image of the police was projected in a positive way. Chief ministers of eight Northeastern states barring Manipur were also present in the function.
“Films show police in such poor light that the people of the country have developed a very negative image of the police force. I would suggest that the government hire a PR firm and hold a meeting with producers to request projecting the positive rather than the negative image of the police,” Modi said.
He however admitted that police too have certain shortcomings. “There are shortcomings, but there are also ways of removing those shortcomings. One negative news about police run for long time, but hundreds of good things about the police never get the focus,” the prime minister lamented.
He also suggested creation of a website for each police station and said these should upload at least one positive story about the police station every week. There are lakhs of acts our police have done which have increased faith of individuals on the police. Why don’t we project them? These will not only boost police morale but also help raise trust and faith in the police,” the prime minister said.
Pointing out that over 33,000 police personnel have laid down their lives for the country and the people since independence, Modi also called for documentation of their stories. “Sacrifice of these 33,000 brave and dedicated police personnel should not go in vain. They were also sons of mothers who died for the country. I would suggest we collate the stories of each of these martyrs, and develop textbooks for use in training of police personnel in their respective state academies. These will inspire our new recruits. An e-book can also be developed with these stories uploaded in all the languages of our country,” Modi said.
