Need to fine tune the selection process : Killers in the garb of cops
- The Sangai Express Editorial :: September 27, 2014 -

Not an internal affair anymore.

For years, the State Police Department and its personnel have been making the news for all the wrong reasons and once again it is in the news and again for all the wrong reasons.

A one man show it was, making it all that more shameful.

More often than not, the State police personnel seem to have perfected the art of making it to the news for reasons that are not exactly flattering.

The Sangai Express joins the State Police Department, the State Government, the family members, friends and others in mourning the death of the police personnel who was shot dead in the night of September 25 by a ‘deranged’ man, after hijacking his vehicle near PCTC oil pump.

It was not just the act of a man who had ‘lost his mind’ but also painted a poor picture of the State police personnel for how does one explain the fact that it took but one single man to open fire at a group of policemen and hijack a vehicle and later shoot the driver dead.

In as much as the act of the individual was abhorrent and everyone should join hands in condemning the incident, it also stands that the incident has exposed the lapses on the part of the policemen to a great extent.

That the killer turned out to be a cop ultimately has only made matters worse.

How did an unsound mind, a killer in short, get selected as a policeman is the natural question that follows.

This is not all for remember, the lone villain, yes a villain, found the perfect opportunity to sneak up to the policemen, open fire and then hijack a vehicle being driven by another policeman in the dead of the night.

Hunting down the killer should not be the only matter of utmost importance here and now is the time to question the procedure of selecting men or women to join the State police force.

Today a rogue in police uniform stands exposed but what has not been exposed for years is the story of how a deranged mind got the opportunity to be selected as a cop. A plain and simple question but for which there is no official answer or explanation.

There is also as yet no answer on how many such killers have taken shelter under the uniform of a policeman.

No answers forthcoming, but each rogue or villainous policeman will tell a story of how the system has been run and managed all these years and there is nothing comforting about these thoughts.

It is also not at all a comforting thought to come to terms with the reality that it took just one man to open fire at a group of policemen, hijack a vehicle and later shoot dead the driver of the vehicle, who also happened to be a policeman.

Police modernisation is a popular term with the Government and while there is nothing wrong in equipping the State cops with the latest state of the art technology, it is a misfortune that enough attention has not been paid on the character of the cops to be enrolled or appointed for active duty.

What happened in the evening of September 25, 2014 should be more than enough indication that a thorough overhaul of the mindset of the powers that be who overlook the recruitment process is the need of the hour.