Mumbai, Sep 22 (PTI) Former IPS officer Julio Ribeiro on Friday said that the officials who are leading a police force at its highest levels should get "operational independence" and should not look to politicians for decision-making.
He was speaking after being feted at a function to mark the Indian Police Foundation's annual day and Police Reforms Day at Nehru Centre at Worli in central Mumbai.
Stressing the importance of police reforms, he said its main purpose is to "depoliticize" the law enforcement machinery.
"Police leaders" or those chosen to lead the force at the highest level must get operational independence, he said.
"Operational independence means they should manage their own affairs and not look at the politicians to decide who should be appointed at the police stations and who should be arrested or not arrested, which is what is happening today," said Ribeiro, who also served as director general of Punjab police during the Khalistan militancy.
"If the party in power appoints a corrupt officer as commissioner of a big city in expectation of the officer sharing the spoils with the minister in charge of the police, then you have a recipe for unmitigated disaster," he said.
"After observing the political shenanigans from within the police and outside, I am convinced that all the governments in the country only pay lip service to the Supreme Court's directions on police reforms, " Ribeiro said, adding they will not implement any meaningful changes.
Citizens should "publish the names" of the officers who are "honest, efficient and whom they trust to ensure the safety of the people and security of the property," the retired Indian Police Service officer said.
Though many governments have passed laws ostensibly conforming to the Supreme Court's 2006 judgement on police reforms in the Prakash Singh case, most of them have also found ways to circumvent the court's real intent, he said.
In Maharashtra, a Police Complaint Authority was set up, but then it was found that its chairman, a retired judge, rarely attended office, Ribeiro said.
The selection of members of such committees is a key aspect which is ignored and such appointments become a source of patronage which is the "worst remedy", he said.