KARACHI, June 9: No marked improvement has been witnessed in police’s image since their division, on functional basis, into two wings — investigation and operation — in February this year.

The police spokesman claimed the detection rate to be at 28 per cent, saying police had detected 392 cases out of 1,397 during the past three months in the city. Giving a breakup, he said 451 cases were reported in February, and of them 147 were detected. 469 cases were reported in March and 146 detected, 471 cases were reported in April and 99 of them detected. The spokesman described it as “an improvement in police’s performance.”

However, the conviction rate was very low.

Sources said there were several reasons for the low conviction rate of criminals. After the separation of investigation and operation in police, there was no coordination between the two segments.

The sources said no visible change had been witnessed in police’s attitude because people were still being refused registration of FIR at police stations. Policemen had been persisting in their rude behaviour and they did not show courtesy to complainants. So people continued to be scared of going to police station.

In the cases in which FIRs had been registered, police had taken illegal gratification from complainants on the pretext that they did not have budget for stationery and other necessaries, the sources said.

Once an FIR was registered, it was immediately handed over to the investigation wing. The investigation police were also divided into homicide and property wings. And the investigation police did not have powers to arrest any person, which was the responsibility of the police maintaining law and order. The law & order police had picked up suspects involved in petty crimes, and they had been let off without registering FIRs after they greased the palms of policemen, the sources said.

They said if an FIR was registered, the case was shifted to the investigation wing, and the police maintaining law and order had nothing to do with investigation after the registration of an FIR. Police avoided registering FIR by taking illegal gratification, if cases were not of heinous nature or they were cognizable offence which could be brought to the notice of high officials.

Similarly, the investigation police also, usually, did not let go of any opportunity to extort suspects or their families. They had adopted the tactic of picking up a number of suspects in blind FIRs and made deals with them or their families and took illegal gratification for the release of suspects, the sources said.

Policemen in the two wings — operation and investigation — did not have confidence in each other and they, rather, kept an eye on each other’s activities, the sources said, adding that this was creating a bad image of police among the people.

Another negative aspect was that all the police officials who had a good comprehension of law had been transferred to the investigation wing to improve the rate of detection. As a result, a number of police stations were now without experienced police officials, who were well conversant with matters concerning FIR, the sources said.

The sources said registration of FIR was a technical matter as police official registering an FIR used his judgment while applying sections of various laws keeping in view the contents of the application for the registration of an FIR, because the FIR was to be pursued in courts of law.

“In various police stations, Munshis (retired police officials) are hired for registration of FIRs, and policemen of a particular police station collectively pay the salary of the Munshi. This the policemen do to conceal their incompetence,” the sources said.