'A cop catches up on latest laws once in 18 years'

A policeman usually gets to brush up his knowledge on latest laws and rules only once in 18 years owing to gaps in holding training sessions, the BPRD chief said on Thursday.

The Bureau of Police Research and Development (BPRD), under the Home Ministry, is the national nodal department to work upon and improve issues related to policing.

"Of late we realised that here is a huge gap in training," BPRD Director General (DG) Meeran C Borwankar said while speaking at an event on police training here.

Data on police oragnisations published by the bureau shows that in 2015 about 73,000 police officials were recruited across the country, but only 57,000 could be given training.

"So, there is a gap of basic training not being given to about 16,000 police persons we recruit. The data also shows that (out of) the 22 lakh strong police force, we could give in-service training to only about 1.4 lakh police persons which means I would be trained about the latest laws, rules and regulations once in about 18 years," Borwankar said.

The BPRD has convened a two-day national symposium of heads of police training institutions with the theme 'Promoting E-Learning for Police Training'.

The DG said that in view of these challenges, the bureau holds these annual symposiums and encouarges states to "fill in the gap in the basic training, in-service training and to improve the quality of training."