Effective Policing is key in Women’s Safety
- In Current Affairs
- 12:30 PM, Feb 20, 2017
- Sujeet Pillai
2017 begun with some unnerving news for India. Rampant complaints of molestation have been reported by women revelers from Bengaluru. One video of some CCTV footage has molestation of women in public. As is with every event the usual outrage began on social media. Everything from mindsets to Manu is being blamed. Some "All men are the problem" vs "Not All Men" debates began.
Without doubt, there is a social angle to making India safer for women. Mindsets, cultural expectations and stigmas need to be altered. However, are governments really the most efficient vehicle for such transformation? What's the real impact such social intervention can have? At the best results achieved will be in the medium to long term.
Proposal: A pragmatic solution to a limited problem
Before we try to solve any problem, let's clearly define what we're going to attempt to solve. General "Women's safety" is too broad a spectrum to be able to provide any specific intervention to. This umbrella would include domestic abuse, sexual assault in private, the workplace, etc. Most of the aforementioned issues can mostly have only a post-facto solution rather than a preventive one. What if we were to limit the problem to just public molestation? Try and reclaim the public spaces in our cities and towns to ensure that they're safe for women at all times.
What aspects do we need to consider while trying to tackle public molestation? Firstly, this is a geographically distributed issue. Any solution that addresses this problem will require to cover quite a bit of area. Every alley, road and shortcut is a potential crime scene when it comes to public molestation. Secondly, this crime has an almost hit-and-run like dynamic. The crime occurs even in crowded spaces (more so in crowded spaces actually) and the perpetrator is capable of making a quick getaway. Primarily, this suggests that prevention of such crimes are only possible if policing is available at the scene or in short reach.
A new force
To tackle this problem I propose a new women's safety force/cell under the regular police.
Let's walk through the salient features of said force.
The force will consist of highly mobile 2 person teams (2 women officers). They are equipped
with a motorcycle/scooter which are fitted with dashcams. They are continuously located in their beat/assigned area. These officers will have next to zero 'station time'. This force will be available 24/7.
Each of these officers will be trained in martial arts, defensive and suppression techniques. They will also be provided with training to take a compassionate approach towards victims. This should ensure that this force will not indulge in any victim-shaming/blaming when they respond. Each officer will also carry pellet guns for use in suppressing/disabling perpetrators.
These guns are non-lethal however result in medium to long term injuries amongst
perpetrators. The sheer terror of these guns should also provide a general deterrent against such crimes and enforces future compliance of laws amongst perpetrators. Such punitive action provides victims with a sense of immediate justice as opposed to the longish (many a times embarrassing) process of the Indian judiciary.
This force will operate through a special warning emergency system. All smartphones will have a special app to raise an alarm when in danger. For dumb phones a special number will be provided to raise the alarm. This app will work over the emergency communication protocol; hence it'll be accessible on all networks for free. The smartphone app when invoked raises an emergency alarm and provides the GPS location of the phone and identity of the victim (This can be voluntarily submitted by users when signing up for the app).
This emergency signal is then automatically routed to the nearest 3 teams with both location and identity of the victim. These teams will receive this signal through a device embedded into their vehicle. These two person teams must respond in haste to any emergency alarm raised. The protocol would be for the driving team member to hurry towards the location while the other team member tries to make contact with the victim to gauge the exact location and nature of the disturbance. On arrival, the team is authorized to use non-lethal force to deter the perpetrators and apprehend them if possible.
First priority is always to secure the victim. Apprehending the perpetrators will always be a secondary objective. The team members should be able to call for backup from other teams or from the regular police and handoff any hot pursuit to the regular police force. Any dashcam footage captured must be admissible in court as evidence. To maximize their efficiency, the officers must be proficient in the local
language, hindi and english. Their uniforms must be designed to be easily distinguishable.
To build trust in this force investment must be made in publicity/advertising for this force. A narrative could be built around "Women securing women's dignity" with advertisements featuring photographs of such teams. This should be useful in buiding desirability for employment and morale in this force as well. Parents need to be targeted using public service messages to ensure that their daughters have the emergency app installed and are educated as to how this force operates. The advertising must encourage women to err on side of caution and even request a response when they sense danger and not just when danger is imminent.
Conclusion
I believe given the limited scope of the problem we've defined effective policing as a solution is possible. Such policing will go a long way towards reclaiming public spaces for women. Let's begin to find some solutions for women's safety rather than just provide the issue with just lip service or candle light vigils.
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