Remove mistrust between police and people: PM

Concerned over the mistrust between the police and the public, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh today favoured urgent reforms for better community policing and better actionable intelligence.

"We need to recognise a very significant fact that the best, actionable and prompt intelligence on internal security often comes from the police stations. However, people will come forth to give information to the local policeman only when they see him as a friend.

"Bridging the gap of mistrust that exists between the police and the community will go a long way in collecting actionable intelligence," Singh said while inaugurating Chief Ministers conference on internal security here.

"We need to closely examine the functioning of police stations and bring forth changes to make policemen people- friendly. We need to take three-pronged action on community policing, police reforms and informed use of technology respectively to make this happen," he said.

"This also brings me to the idea of involving the academia and professionals, who are experts in the field of data mining and cyber security, in policing," the PM said.

He asked the Centre and the states to work together to formulate guidelines for community policing.

"We cannot continue to police our society with archaic laws and policing systems. We are aware that many police commissions have made various recommendations on police reforms. I urge the states to seriously look into this aspect," Prime Minister added.