Bihar, UP worst in policing, southern states score high: Survey
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New Delhi: Bihar and Uttar Pradesh have scored the lowest in policing on a survey conducted by independent think-tank Indian Police Foundation. Southern states have fared better with the highest scores.
The top five states on the IPF Smart Policing Index 2021 are Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Assam, Kerala and Sikkim. On the bottom are Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Chattisgarh, Jharkhand, and Punjab. The national average of satisfaction is at 69%, reported The Indian Express.
The survey had 10 sets of questionnaires with six indices of "Competence-Based Indicators" and asked questions about police sensitivity, accessibility, responsiveness and technology adoption. Three value-based indicators asked questions about the integrity of the police and trust.
States were scored on a scale of 10. The Lowest-scoring state Bihar scored the lowest in five categories - 5.98 in public trust in policing, 4.97 in integrity and corruption-free service, 5.81 in technology adoption, 5.84 in police responsiveness, and 5.75 in police sensitivity.
Second-lowest scoring state Uttar Pradesh scored the lowest in three categories - 5.59 in helpful and friendly policing, 5.27 in fair and unbiased policing, and 5.80 in police accountability. People from Bihar, Chhattisgarh and Uttar Pradesh trusted the least in the police. Andhra, Telangana and Kerala scored the police high in trust.
Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Assam, Kerala and Gujarat scored best in fair and unbiased policing. Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Assam, Sikkim and Kerala scored high in helpful and friendly policing. Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Assam, Kerala and Odisha scored high on Police accountability.
President of IPF and retired IPS officer N Ramachandran oversaw the survey which received responses from over 1.61 lakh people.
Prakash Singh, chairman of the Indian Police Foundation, said that the survey is an attempt to assess the performance of various states on the PM's Smart Policing initiative. He added that the IPF hopes that the survey will motivate states to do better.
Mr Ramachandran told The Indian Express that those who had no contact with the police in the past five years had a poorer perception of them. He added that the survey also had its limitations due to the sample size compared to the population of the country.
