District Police Organisation and Role of Superintendent of Police :

The police administration is built around police districts. Each police range comprises of four or more police districts, which coincide with the boundaries of the revenue districts. Organizationally, the district is further subdivided into police circles and police stations. The police circles are placed under the control of circle inspectors while the police stations are administratively managed by the Sis of police, which are known by several names in vernacular in different states.

Some police stations also have their police outposts or chowkis within their territorial jurisdiction, which are usually under the charge of head constables or assistant Sis of police depending on the importance of the place where an outpost is located.

For organisational purposes, a police station is the smallest field unit of police administration. Several states have abolished police inspectors in the wake of administrative reorganisation. The SP who heads the district police office, also coordinates the functions of the heads of the district police lines, district crime bureau, district special branch, district traffic branch and the district prose­cution branch.

Office of the SP:

The district police organisation is represented by its chief, the SP. He is always a member the IPS and wields a great amount of power and prestige in the district. Working under the overall supervision of the DM, he looks after the problems of law and order and that of the administration of crime and vice in the district.

Power :

1. As the chief intelligence officer of the district, he collects infor­mation from the lower levels and communicates his assessment of the same to his superiors of the district police personnel system and looks after the service conditions of the junior police employees working under his charge.

2. He is directly responsible for their efficiency, morale and discipline as policemen. In districts which territorially include big cities, the SPs have additional and special responsibilities such as regulation and control of traffic, collection of special intelligence and handling of political and communal conflicts of violent nature.

3. The district or the state police organisation controls the network of police stations spread all over the country. The superintendent of police, who presides over this organisation, is the key functionary through whom the state government operates and the police stations below look to him for command, guidance and action. Hierarchically speaking, the district police in most of the states stand organised into police subdivisions and police circles, which comprise a cluster of police stations.

He controls the incidence of crime in his district through:

(a) Effective patrol by his fleet;

(b) Investigation of grave crimes and making and receiving special reports about these cases; and

(c) Administrative supervision over his subordinates who keep constant vigilance, take preventive measures, and maintain up-to-date records of criminals in the district.

Functions :

1. The function entails a number of subsidiary duties. The SP has to call for reports, supervise in person and visit the scenes of crime soon after their occurrence. This is a major traditional function and the victims involved in these crimes after go to the SP as aggrieved parties in appeal.

2. The SP also supervises the operations of crime and special branches of his CID. He sends periodic information to the DIG (Intelligence) at regular intervals. He also acts as a line agency on behalf of the state organisation of the CID, which, in turn, may ask him to undertake certain special kinds of intelligence operations on the request of Union agencies like CBI or CIB or SPE. The civil, the political and the senior police officials of the government have to be kept constantly informed about the incriminating activities of the saboteurs of peace and enemies of the state.

3. The functions of the SP further include various kinds of organisational and personnel responsi­bilities at the district level. He has to maintain an adequate supply of vehicles, arms, communications, equipment’s and other accessories like uniforms, etc., in a good shape. He inspects police stations within the jurisdictional limits of his district and provides for necessary physical conditions to keep his men working in a satisfactory state of morale and motivation.

4. As a captain of his team, the SP has a critical say in the policies pertaining to recruitment, promotion, training programmes and disciplinary matters. He evaluates the performance of his administrative subordi­nates and takes disciplinary actions as and where needed. To effect discipline in the force he attends parades, gives personal interviews and recommends cases for promotion, punishment and transfers to his seniors.

5. He organizes sports, tournaments, annual get-together and special meets to keep his district force in high spirits. He undertakes police welfare projects and provides incentives to his juniors for better performance. As head of the office, he is personally responsible for the correctness of cash and store accounts of his department.

6. He maintains financial propriety by observing rules and is expected to effect measures conducive to internal economy for the organisation. He super­vises the office work of his civilian officials, who handle the inflows and outflows of all kinds of communications, horizontally as well as vertically.

Democracy in the country has developed a new responsibility upon the SP and that is to evolve and maintain friendly and cordial police-public relations in the district. The aggrieved people are given special audiences and the co-operation of the political leaders of the area is sought. He has to act as a reconciliatory link between his junior police officers and the aggrieved parties, which hurl all sorts of accusations against the former. Some SPs maintain special research cells or police-public relations units in their organisations to keep their fingers on the pulse of the people.

Thus, the functions and duties of a SP in a district are fairly wide, varied and far-reaching. They make him a central person in the district administration. Sitting in the office of the district police chief, the SP deals with his juniors, seniors, non-colleagues, people, political parties and an endless variety of political and quasi-political pressure groups.

His main functions are certainly preser­vation of peace and prevention of crime but the ancillary roles that grow around these major functions like collection of intelligence, traffic control, inculcation of healthy public relations, make him a really powerful district officer who occupies a pivotal position in district adminis­tration.