The Commisionerate of Police in collaboration with the School of Leadership, KIIT University and Kalinga Institute of Social Sciences Research team has embarked on a program to train Police personnel on sensitization and behavioral practices.
The Project Research Team has been able to take the 1st leg of the project ahead and conducted a pilot survey with the police personnel during which they had the opportunity to interact with the personnel and the clients who visited specific police stations across the city of Bhubaneswar. Through this pilot survey, in consultation with the Commisionerate, the KISS Research Team was able to get an essence of the daily workings of the police system. The research included a 7 days intensive interaction and observation of the police personnel and the clientele who visited the police station to submit their reports on various issues faced by them. The observation and interaction entailed an in depth understanding of how the police personnel deal with the public and how the public interacted with the police. The KISS research team members visited assigned police stations on the basis of full day visits and stayed at the station to get details of all the daily activities. After a period, the team inter changed the locations so that there was no biased opinion on the findings based on uniformity.
The methodology used in this research was participant observation, non participant observation, personal interviews and focused group discussions. Through these procedures, the team was able to come up with a substantial amount of feedback which was provided to the police commissionerate at the meeting held on the 23rd of October 2013. The team worked on coming up with an intensive list of findings which could assist the Commissionerate towards a better implementation of interpersonal relationship between the police personnel and the public. The survey findings through the questionnaire would further help in formulation of modules and the planned intensive training program to be conducted in the month of November.
The findings included major requirements and grievances of the police personnel and the general issues that the public has in terms of their experience with the police. These research findings would further help in developing intensive module based on behavioural practices and sensitization, which are being incorporated for an intensive program to be held for 2000 police personnel, at Kalinga Institute of Industrial Technology (KIIT).
The KISS research team has been working intensively on developing the proposed program module and survey with constant consultation and approval from the Commissionerate of Police, Bhubaneswar. There has been a number of meetings over the months of September and October through brain storming on the proper requirements of the Commissionerate, under the guidance of Dr S.N. Misra.
A presentation was made to the Commissionerate of Police wherein the team discussed at large what work has been done so far, the number of police personnel that were interviewed, the interaction done with the public, the intensive pilot survey findings and the way forward from here on. The Commissionerate shared their views on the findings and were quite satisfied with the program so far. They gave their constructive feedback on the training program modules and also discussed the questionnaires that will contribute to the overall findings and training program. The Commissioner expressed his keenness to scale up the program and have the same training program for higher officials of the Police system after the initial police personnel training program has been completed.