For those of you who don’t know me well, I live in India.  Some of you know India as the land of elephants, snake charmers and cows-on-the-street.  Others view India as an emerging economic powerhouse.  Still others, only know the Infosys angle – a nation that is very rapidly evolving as an IT hub and software giant.  Whatever be your perspective, I can bet my bottom dollar that you don’t presume policemen in India to have a Ph.D !!!

I didn’t either.  That’s why, I was surprised to come across a blog – Random Thoughts – that was authored by no less than an officer of the Indian Police Service.  And, even more surprised to learn that this IPS officer is presently enrolled in the prestigious IIT school of Management (SJMSOM) for a Ph.D in area of Public Policy measures in Information Security in India, taking electives like E-Business fundamentals, Management Decisions and BPR. 

I have been following his blog for some months now.  While the frequency of posts is not entirely predictable, I have found some really interesting essays on this blog, and recommend you give it a look.  Here’s a sample :

Dattu Kharad (48) and Anwar Hussein (32) were arrested by the Crime Branch Unit IV at Dadar on Friday, on charges of pickpocketing. They had Rs. 800,000 worth of gold and diamond jewellery in their possession at the time of the arrest…The loot, according to the confession statements, varied from Rs 500 per day to Rs 90,000, with Hussein specialising in the theft of mobile phones…

This brings us to the interesting question of how large is the phenomenon of crime.  In a city like Mumbai, if someone can make a comfortable living out of pickpocketing from a single bus route, work out a cosy arrangement with the people who should be catching them and not be caught for over ten years, it tells us that it must be really big.  Normally, crime statistics of cases reported to the police should be a good indicator, but in India, we have a situation where many victims do not find it worthwhile to lodge complaints, where reporting is not facilitated by the law enforcement machinery (probably due to lack of adequate resources to investigate each and every crime) and where there is an artificial distinction between cognisable and non-cognisable cases, which affords another way of evading registration.  There is apparently no easy way of gauging the actual extent of crime in the society.  Not many academic institutions are interested in this kind of research work.  The decision-makers thus do not have the benefit of taking informed decisions while allocating resources for crime control.

All of his blog posts are not about Crime, but it  is a subject that is prominently covered.  Also included are the policeman’s thoughts on matters of public policy, government, society and the likes.

I, for one, am thrilled to come across this site.  I only wish more policemen had blogs…