In the previous piece, I took readers on a tour of the entire gamut of Bharat’s broken and dysfunctional criminal justice system. The time has now come for a detailed analysis of the reasons behind the system’s collapse and to present a case for its immediate reboot through comprehensive reforms. To take this forward, I begin with the current state of — and urgent reforms needed in — the first critical cog: the police system.

Any discourse on policing must begin with the principles laid down by Sir Robert Peel, the “Father of Modern Policing", who established the London Metropolitan Police in 1829. He enunciated three core ideas and nine principles. Here are his three core ideas:

One, the goal of policing is to prevent crime, not merely to catch criminals. If the police can stop crime before it occurs, there is no need to punish citizens or suppress their rights. An effective police department is not measured by the number of arrests it makes, but by the low crime rates in the community it serves.

Two, the key to preventing crime lies in earning public support. Every member of the community must share responsibility for crime prevention, almost as if they were voluntary members of the force. This sense of shared responsibility can only emerge if the public trusts and supports the police.

Three, the police earn public support by upholding the values of the community. Gaining public approval requires consistent efforts to build credibility — through impartial law enforcement, recruiting officers who represent and understand the community, and using force strictly as a last resort.

Had the British adhered to the policing ethos of Sir Robert Peel, we might be living in a very different Bharat today.

Instead, in the aftermath of the First War of Independence in 1857, the colonial authorities introduced the repressive Indian Police Act of 1861, designed to consolidate British rule by suppressing dissent and potential uprisings. The policing model introduced was largely based on the Irish Constabulary — a force intended more for occupation than for public service.

When the British left Bharat in 1947, the archaic Indian Police Act of 1861 remained the central legal framework governing policing in the country, along with its draconian and adversarial provisions. Seventy-seven years have passed since Independence, yet Bharat continues to operate under the shadow of this outdated colonial statute — largely because it continues to serve the interests of the political and bureaucratic........

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