Hullabaloo over new appointees

The fever has finally died down after the new Commissioner of Police and Director General of Police have been appointed

Hullabaloo over new appointees

The fever has finally died down after the new Commissioner of Police and Director General of Police have been appointed. But everyone remains curious of how the new commanding heads will be like because every policeman ufffd from a constable to a joint commissioner ufffd gets affected by these appointments.

The grapevine, which is a mix of half truths will have all details about all their previous postings, their date of birth or children studying abroad. Sometimes there are silly anecdotes about what happened during their training at the IPS academy.

Sometimes the question comes to mind as to why would a low rank constable be interested in the transfer of a CP or DG even when he may never get a chance to interact with him at a personal level.

But the answer is deep rooted. A decision taken by a commissioner filters down to the lowest ranking constable through a chain of command. It reminds me of an old army adage: an army of sheep led by a tiger could be more dangerous than an army of tigers led by a sheep.

A constable and officer down in the chain of command feels safe if he knows that his boss would protect him or stand by his side when in trouble. It does not take long for the junior constabulary to find out the likes and dislikes of the commissioner. The commissioner's dictum are executed by the junior ranks.

I once overheard a commissioner ask his DCP, "Don't you feel you are a policeman and you should act tough?" I could not gather the details of how the DCP reacted to the command, but surely he must have created hell for the offender.

If the commissioner is an indoor person, then this trait cannot be hidden. The seniors would be away from their
jurisdiction attending meetings at the police headquarters.

I've realised that the questions asked prior to the appointment of a CP or a DG are not baseless. Sometimes the policemen want to know whether he would be treated with respect under the new command structure.

Probably the sequence of events prior to the appointment of the highest ranking policemen is not included in police manual or not taught at the IPS academy. It would be wrong to infer that the commissioner or the director general is indirectly connected to the lowest ranking member of the force. They are surely interested in knowing who is the man who would command them.

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