Police officers must be at people’s service or will be taken off the field: IGP

Officers must recast their mindset to serve the people or go off the field, Inspector General of Police AKM Shahidul Hoque has warned.

People were mortally scared of police, he said while speaking at a discussion in the Rangpur Police Lines on Tuesday, adding that the force must reinvent itself to become friendly.
 
Of late, police have faced a barrage of criticism over incidents of highhandedness that created nationwide outrage.
 
The IGP reminded the force that it hardly had any ground to be authoritarian when the salaries of its personnel came from the taxes ordinary paid.
 
The duty of police was to serve the people, he reminded them.
 

“A communication gap between the police and the public has created a negative image of the force,” he added.

Last week, several policemen had allegedly attacked a tea-seller, who died of severe burns caused by the spilling of oil from a stove the policemen had apparently overturned.

Earlier, an SI was suspended for allegedly harassing a female student near Mohammadpur.

And, last month, two government officials were tortured by policemen at Mohammadpur and Jatrabarhi.