A VISIT to the Scottish Crime Campus in Gartcosh, a small town outside Glasgow introduced me to the effective yet integrated approach to policing in Scotland. The manner in which Scottish police have restructured themselves in the last few months has been phenomenal.

Eight different regional forces have coalesced into one Police Scotland. That means that seven chief constables (counterparts to our inspectors general) had to compromise on their positions, were laid off, or were politely asked to look for a comparable job elsewhere. The reasons for these changes may be budgetary, but the integration seems to be working well.

To support these operational reforms, they have built a multipurpose crime campus with all policing functions under one roof. There are basically support services — forensics, intelligence, witness protection, counterterrorism, media handling, etc — that are housed here. Their strategy seems to be wholesome in the sense that all heads come together in cases pertaining to major incidents/events to chalk out a joint strategy for productive results.

Police in Pakistan can take a cue from their counterparts in Scotland.

This approximately £9 million building, a state-of-the-art facility shaped like a DNA cell, houses a well-designed forensic facility, boardrooms for meetings, and amongst other things, an excellent cafeteria which serves hot food and bakery items for the working troops as well as those holding staff positions.

Police functions in both England and Scotland have been undergoing restructuring in tandem. Twelve years ago, when I was first exposed to policing issues in the UK, there was the Centre for Excellence. Housed in a 16th-century mansion in Bramshill, this centre for police training has since closed down and the building is up for sale. Next was the National Police Improvement Agency that after a long stint was also replaced by a different institution. Similarly, the state-supported Forensic Science Services was closed down and its functions are now being performed by a handful of commercial companies as well as by the local police forces.

The point being argued here is that, despite this restructuring and to some extent revolutionary changes, basic policing functions continue to be performed in an integrated way. Police Scotland is a case in point. No matter how many changes are brought about by the parliaments here with regard to policing, public confidence in the police forces remains quite high because by mainstreaming the concepts of community policing, the police forces remain integrated with the citizens.

Coupled with this is the structure of police authorities in that country wherein the local chief constable is answerable for his force’s actions to the appointed authority. This creates an extremely effective and strict oversight mechanism, which has led to some high-profile resignations by police chiefs over negligence, misconduct or indifference in the line of duty.

Policing in Pakistan, on the other hand, faces myriad problems. While integrated in its functions, though not by Gartcosh standards, there are vastly different working conditions, cultures, and populations, making the police forces in Pak­is­tan suffer from serious extraneous challenges.

Policing, one must not forget, is a function carried out by members of a force reflective of that very society. A common argument in support of the police is the number of lives lost by the force in the last 14 years or so while fighting the war against terrorism. Agreed; however, there are jurisdictions in Pakistan where even small-scale crime is non-existent. Could an integrated approach with the community be possible in these areas?

The Police Order 2002 tried to address some of these issues. Although it was crafted by some of the country’s most well-repu­ted police chiefs, the document could not be utilised to its full potential. Currently, two provinces have done away with it while the other two have amen­ded it in line with their local needs.

Many readers would agree that basic police functions are not being performed meritoriously by a large number of police forces in Pakistan. It is admittedly very difficult in a fledgling democracy like ours to separate politics from policing, which results in the police being prone to extraneous influences and interferences. Yet there are also instances that have proved otherwise.

Some of the officers currently working in Sindh, including Karachi, have brought the crime rate down remarkably by dint of sheer hard work. Similarly, recent reforms in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa police force have earned extremely positive reviews from citizens that are being heard for the first time since the much-lauded National Highways and Motorway Police arrived on the scene about 12 years ago.

All said and done, the police need to perform their operational duties in a manner that is independent but not insular. Policing can’t be an insular function because it affects the public in many ways; at the same time it is important to shun outside influences that can have an adverse impact on policing.

The writer, a police officer, is visiting the Scottish Centre for Crime and Justice Research at the University of Glasgow as a Commonwealth Fellow.

Published in Dawn, September 17th, 2015

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