Assam police secures third position in Smart Policing index of IPF

In the list of ‘Smart Policing Survey 2021’ conducted by the Indian Police Foundation (IPF), Assam police secured overall third rank in the country with overall score of 7.89 out of 10.

The prestigious Indian Police Foundation, a multidisciplinary think tank and policy advocacy platform, has conducted “IPF SMART Policing Survey 2021” in 29 States and Union Territories of the Country and has published its report.

The SMART Policing idea was envisioned, articulated and introduced by the Prime Minister of India at the Conference of DGPs of State and Central Police Organizations, held at Guwahati, in the year 2014. It envisaged systemic changes to transform the Indian Police to be: Strict and Sensitive, Modern and Mobile, Alert and Accountable, Reliable and Responsive, Techno-savvy and Trained. The purpose of the IPF survey was to gather information on citizens’ perceptions about the impact of the SMART policing initiative and to gauge public perceptions about the quality of policing in India and the level of public trust in the police.

The experts from various Institutions of repute including IIT, Kanpur and Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS), Mumbai were involved in this Survey.

IPF designed the survey questionnaire around 10 areas of SMART policing, comprising six indicators of competence, three indicators of values and one on public trust.

The SMART Scores are set on a scale of 1 to 10 and are indicative of the levels of citizen satisfaction, a score of 10 being the highest level of satisfaction.

Assam is ahead of states like Kerala (7.53), Gujarat (7.04), Delhi (6.85), Tamil Nadu (6.73),Karnataka (6.69) and Maharashtra (6.25) whereas only two states namely Andhra Pradesh (8.11) and Telangana (8.10) have scored better than Assam.

It is heartening to mention that Assam Police has secured 3rd place in the country in important individual parameters like Police Sensitivity; Strictness and Good Behaviour; Accessibility; Police Responsiveness; Helpful and Friendly Policing; Fair, Unbiased and Lawful Policing and Police Accountability.

This encouraging outcome indicates the high level of citizens satisfaction and trust reposed by them in Assam Police.

Bhaskar Jyoti Mahanta, DGP Assam, expressed his appreciation to each member of team Assam Police who have been working relentlessly despite myriad of challenges in the service of the society.

“However, there is no room for complacency and we have to go a long way,” he said.

Mahanta also stated that Assam Police is committed, under the visionary leadership of Assam Chief Minister to transform itself as a Forcededicated to provide reliable, accessible, responsive, technology-driven and trained policing services to the people, a police force that is values-driven, will promote integrity, set standards of conduct, make efforts to reduce corruption, ensure that police discharge their duties with fairness and impartiality and build appropriate accountability mechanisms.

“We look forward to continued support and cooperation from citizens in this regard,” he added.

(Reporting by Hemanta Kumar Nath)