Police strength in India
In India, the police are classified as civil and armed police. The total sanctioned strength of police in the country is about 14 lakh (11.01 lakh civil and 2.98 lakh armed). Of this, 6 per cent posts were vacant in December 1998.
In the armed police, 94.6 per cent constitute constables and officers below ASI rank, 4.8 per cent constitute officers of ASI, SI and inspector rank, 0.4 per cent constitute officers of ASP and DSP rank, and 0.2 per cent are officers of SP, DIG, IG and DG ranks. Like the civil police, the niaximum strength of the armed police (11.4%) is also found in Uttar Pradesh.
Women police force also has been created in the country. The total strength of the sanctioned women civil police is 20,229 whereas the actual strength in 1998 was 20,620 (ibid. 349). Of the total women police force, per cent are constables and head-constables, 9.8 per cent are ASI, SI and inspectors, 0.3 per cent are ASPs and DSPs, and 0.1 per cent are SPs and DIGs (ibid.: 349).
ADVERTISEMENTS:
The maximum strength of women police (18.7%) exists in Maharashtra. As regards women armed police, only Assam, Madhya Pradesh, Goa, Jammu & Kashmir and Delhi have such police. The total strength of women armed police in the country in 1998 was only 1,015.
An analysis of the adequacy of police personnel to the total population of India shows that there are 136 police personnel per one lakh people. While the police investigated 6.96 lakh cases in 1961, it investigated 23.04 lakh cases (including pending cases) in 1998 (Crime in India, 1998:14).