-The Times of India A day after the Supreme Court questioned the government's wisdom over existing security cover to VIPs, the Centre on Friday said security to protected persons could be scaled down depending upon the threat perception. Even as a committee, comprising senior home ministry and Intelligence Bureau officials, has been working on rationalizing the list of protected persons, minister of state for home affairs R P N Singh said, "If...

The country which faces police vacancy to the tune of over 5 lakh personnel deploys three cops to protect its one VIP as against availability of merely one cop for 761 lesser mortals. Recently released data on police organizations in the country revealed how different states and Union Territories tend to deploy more and more cops for VIP security than the sanctioned strength of police personnel for this purpose. Though the Union...

-The Hindu   Liberal bail system adopted by courts Only 3.2 per cent of the people arrested for various crimes are in prison given the “liberal bail system” adopted by courts, according to the Bureau of Police Research and Development (BPR&D), New Delhi. Making a presentation on ‘Problems of overcrowding in prisons in India' at an all-India conference of DG/IG of Prisons here on Saturday, B.V. Trivedi, Deputy Director, BPR&D, said: “As much as...

-The Indian Express   A study sponsored by the Union Home Ministry has recommended that Naxal sympathisers should be "left alone" to the confinement of seminar halls rather than persecuting them. "Distinction needs to be made between Naxal activists and the cheerleaders, between incitement and advocacy and between criminal conspiracies and ideological sympathises. While the state can go all out against the Naxal overground activists, alleged persecution of the cheerleaders would provide...

KEY TRENDS    • The total number of civilians killed and injured during police firing in 2016 was 92 and 351, respectively. The total number of civilians killed and injured during police lathi-charge in 2016 was 35 and 759, respectively #$   • In 2015, the NCRB recorded over 73 lakh complaints of cognizable crimes. Cognizable crimes are relatively serious offences for which police officers do not need a warrant from the magistrate to investigate, such...