Community Policing: Maybe the Answer is Fixing Broken Windows

As I learned more and more about policing and law enforcement in India, I began to theorize that the answer is not community policing writ large, but perhaps the fixing broken windows idea. While I was here there were two rapes in the city, one was a gang rape.  A young woman with another woman was delivered to her home after getting off the evening shift.  Evidently the cab driver did not accompany her to her door.  In the US we would think that this was enough.  But the police immediately came out with the idea that they would mandate that cab drivers accompany women at night.  And the police would follow some cabs at night to make sure they were doing this.  In another case, a woman was abducted who was with a male friend who could not prevent it.  He ran around to call for help and then he ran around to see if any one saw the number of the car, but the police didn't come promptly and didn't listen to him according to the news story.  But what the police can't fix is that now the family is in denial of what happened because her honor has been violated.  The Chief Minister and others are investigating these rapes.

In big cities and elsewhere rapes do happen.  What needs to be investigated is any ways that other government branches and NGOs, the companies can help rather than do everything. What the police need to fix is, perhaps, their response. But this is a more large scale and policing problem.

 According to the broken window theory, the police need to be active in reporting, monitoring the urban environment so that people feel safe and people actually behave better. They need to reduce petty crime and vandalism.  They have an excellent opportunity here in Delhi because neighborhood  are gated and off the highways. This idea started with a recognition that if graffiti was removed from subway cars in NYC, people behaved better.  If  the street has litter, then more people drop litter and more people are disrespectful of others.  If horn blowing starts (and it is all over the subcontinent), then it will continue and traffic will not follow the rules of the road.  This means that police must monitor and arrest for some of the minor crimes, but also call upon the neighborhood associations to take ownership, call upon public waste departments, women's groups to help victims, and other agencies to create a civil society.

Indians speak regularly of creating a civil society. This idea fits with their world view of a democratic society for all in India no matter what religion, language, caste, or class. The petty issues, the litter, the crazy traffic do affect the quality of life and ultimately how safe they perceive themselves.  It starts from the bottom up. Its not easy but it may be a start in light of so many big problems in India. But there is a mind set of pride in India as the biggest democracy and the public needs to feel safe.