Limitations on powers

While policemen have the responsibility of apprehending all law-violators, a significant fact is that the police functions under so many constraints.

First, the rule of law in a democratic society emphasises the rights of individual citizens and places constraints upon the initiative of legal officials.

According to Sholnick, this conflict between the operational consequences of ideas of order and initiative on the one hand and legality on the other constitutes the practical problem of police. Herbert Packer has also talked of conflict between the Crime Control Model and the Due Process Model.

ADVERTISEMENTS:

The Crime Control Model expects disposition of persons suspected of crime as the central value to be served by the criminal process. The Due Process Model expects to respect and maintain the dignity and autonomy of the individual.

The Crime Control Model is administrative and managerial and the Due Process Model is judicial. The Due Process Model thus acts as an obstacle.

Secondly, some persons would applaud the police for harassing gamblers, call-girls, pimps, known criminals with past records, anti-social elements, eve-teasers, etc. but all these individuals as well as many other individuals would contend that the police is unnecessarily harassing them.

When the police suspect somebody as being involved in crime, they take him to the police station for interrogation.

ADVERTISEMENTS:

In such situations the main charge levelled against the policemen is that they use third-degree methods in getting a confession from the suspected person. Even when this is not true, the image of the policemen is such that people take it for granted that violence must have been used against the suspects/accused persons at the police stations.

Thirdly, the procedural rules laid down by the courts for the police for collecting evidence against the accused persons many a time act & obstacles that prevent the police officers from doing their job to the extent of their capabilities.

Fourthly, the constitution guarantees the protection of fundamental rights of all individuals. The rich, the influential and the people with some political and bureaucratic contacts raise objection against searches, against being issued summons for testifying in the courts, and so on.

Sometimes, the police officers are compelled to search without warrant, interrogate suspects for unduly long periods of time, and employ a variety of other expedient techniques to make arrests. The ignoring of procedural rules by the policemen is often criticised and used for describing their activities as harassment of the innocent.

ADVERTISEMENTS:

Fifthly, many a time politicians in power pressurise the police not to take any action against law violators only because they (the violators) help them (the politician) in elections. In such difficult situations, the police either accept-not infrequently-political orders of the rulers on administrative grounds or resort to emphasising ‘due procedure’.