Editorial Desk :
Police do not feel accountable and even for minor violations ask people to come to police stations. The traffic in the capital itself is unbelievably chaotic. But presence of police is everywhere. Their work is not easy. But for reasons of politics or lack of discipline traffic police are found incompetent.
The people complain of being harassed by a section of police using threatening language to start with or asking them to come to police station when a ticket for fine should be enough.
We fail to appreciate why as law enforcers the police have to be aggressive uncalled for. A good and disciplined police force should be well mannered and yet strict. They have the force of law in their control. Use the power as law enforcers without show of unpalatable arrogance. They must behave like people’s police. Proper police training and motivation are important. It is not that the people do not want to cooperate with the police unless they are hard criminals. Sometimes some police behave unnecessarily aggressively to make feel too small before the own police.
The violation of traffic rules often happens because traffic management is uncertain in heavily jammed traffic situations in the capital. All kinds vehicles are on the streets making traffic rules difficult to follow. Buses and trucks are the kings of the roads. They have to be feared more than the police for safety of one’s car or life.
We admit it again that on the whole we have a smart force and most of them deserve praise but still there are a few who for reasons of corruption or politicisation are earning bad name for the whole police. Something must be done to improve people-police relationship.
Despite our bitter everyday experience of deaths due to road accidents a World Bank report has revealed that different entities are there in Bangladesh to ensure road safety, but they are not empowered and lack effective coordination to get expected outcomes. These organisations are also not held accountable.
Besides, the fund allocated for road safety action plans is insufficient not prioritised, and has never been institutionalised. The global lender in the report said the situation had been worsening in the past decades — between 1990 and 2017 — as the rise in the road crash fatality rate in Bangladesh was three times higher than that across the South Asia region. Even the Bangladesh Police report, which is considered very conservative, finds the situation deteriorating further.
Police data shows a sharp rise in road crashes in the last few years though government agencies promised and initiated different steps after a major road safety movement in July-August 2018. In November last year, the country witnessed another student agitation after two college students were killed in two crashes in Dhaka. According to police, 2,513 people were killed in 2,562 road accidents in 2017 while 3,502 people lost their lives in 1,701 crashes in the first eight months of last year. The WB report said nearly 60 per cent of the road crashes take place on the national and regional highways. A substantial number of the highway crashes occur at 754 uncontrolled junctions of these highways and minor roads.
