Police Reporting, Investigation Mechanisms, Political Interference and [Lastly] Safety and Security/Harassment of the Victims from Police

Perspective
Introduction
Police Reporting and Investigation Mechanisms are full of flaws especially with gender perspective which not only results in victimization & harassment of women but also denies them from justice at various levels. These current mechanisms of reporting, lodging complaints and investigation need to be thoroughly examined and reviewed from gender perspective. Research on this topic is crucial for future advocacy initiatives to eradicate existing structural obstacles in providing justice to the women victims and survivors of violence.

There is limited body of verifiable knowledge available on the subject. Academic studies are few and the press reports are generally conjectural. Considering this, it is important that the present research explores the subject rigorously. Qualitative policy research methods are highly suitable to produce policy relevant analysis to understand the dynamics of relationship between police and the women complainants of gender based violence (GBV), and to recommend a course of action, if adopted by the government of Pakistan, can bring about positive change in the attitudes of the police officials towards the women complainants of the GBV.

Objectives of the Study

The prime objective of the study is to identify the flaws in reporting & investigation system, review the court proceedings along with political interference at various levels and make recommendations that will contribute to the separation of law and judicial structures from political pressures and interference. This study relates to and focuses on Gender Based Violence (GBV) and plight of the victims of such violence who experience structural hurdles while exercising their rights to justice. The study will seek to Review with gender perspective the complaint system, police reporting, investigation mechanisms, the institutional response, services, and mechanisms for access to these services. Identify the ways and means of political interference in policing Identify the ways and means of discrimination meted out to women by the law enforcement agencies including police and other relevant institutions. Review the resources and methods of data capture and monitoring of institutional performance at gender crime cell. Identify the current gender indicators in use at gender crime cell and draw conclusions regarding the status of interventions and ways to improve it. 1

Identify relevant organizations, institutions, programs and projects. Conduct a KAP at institutional level of police. Map out major efforts already underway or in the pipeline with respect to policing and strengthening these institutions.

In depth Interview Guide:

Introduction The interviewer will introduce himself/herself to the key informant/respondent. The interviewer of will tell the key informant/respondent about his/her affiliation. Purpose of Interview The present study is being conducted to investigate problems in police reporting and complaint mechanism from the gender perspective. The study will also identify ways and means of institutional discrimination against women.

Clarification
Please clarify that the interview findings will be kept confidential and will never be revealed to any one in media or in police department.

Conducting Interview
The Dos for Interview Begin interview with a friendly and familiar greeting. Listen with attention to capture every piece of information from respondents. Explore key words, phrases, idioms, terms as they occur in the discussion. Listen to impressions, topics avoided by informant, deliberate distortions and misconceptions or misunderstandings. Take prompt action to explore each of these. Where appropriate, use probes Ensure a natural flow of discussion by guiding informant from one topic to the next Play dumb(be silent) to give the respondent plenty of room to talk Be open to unexpected information

The Donts Influence or bias responses by introducing one's own perceptions or asking leading questions which encourage a particular response. Move too quickly from one topic to the next Interrupt the informant. Misleading about the subject matter in order to obtain information. Promising that key suggestions will be implemented

Recording of Interview
The interviewers should have led pencils, erasers, and writing pads to take notes of the interviews. The interviewers should follow the order of questions during interview. However, the order of the questions may be changed following the responses of the key informants/respondents. The interviewers should encourage the key informants/respondents speak and explain.

Interview Begins
Please follow the following instructions for interview. 1. Choose a comfortable and quiet place to interview. 2. Request the key informant/respondent to turn off his/her mobile phone. 3. Turn off your mobile phone also. 4. Try not to interview at the police station. 5. Do not bring any one in interview 6. Request the key informant/respondent to come alone 7. Offer tea/coffee or some other beverage Session 1: 1.1 Icebreaking

Personal Information Please tell me about your education? Where did you study? I am postgraduate in Agricultural Sociology from Agricultural unigersity of Tando jam. Did you want to become police officer? No. It was an accidental decision and I was compelled by circumstances to join police force. Do you like working in police? First of it is my job and I like it as well. Complaint Recording How many complaints you register in a week? The number of complaints depends upon situation. Sometimes, we receive one or two complaints and sometimes no complaint during a week. Where did you learn registering complaints? From Head Mahrar. Do you find complaint registering interesting task? Yes. It is interesting as well as learning one. I still remember when I had registered a complaint of a woman in which she claimed that her husband had eloped with her sister and on it I had laughed and laughed. How do you register complaints? First I listen to the story told by complainant carefully and heedfully and write into my style then I read it out before complainant for his/her satisfaction. What are the problems in complaint registration? (writing problems only) Not any. Investigation Experience How long have you been working as an investigation officer? 3

1.2

1.3

Since last 8 years. How long have you been working at this police station? Since last 2 years. How many investigations you are working on these days? Two and both are GBV cases. How many of these investigations are about gender based crimes/violence? Both. When did you come across with a complaint/or a case of gender based violence for the first time? It was 2004 when a woman complained against her husband and claimed that her husband had snatched all of her dowry after bitterly torturing her and divorced her as well. 1.4 Investigation Training Did you receive any training in investigation? If yes, who conducted the training, what was its duration? No. not in a formal way. What were the contents of the training program? Was there any practical involved in the training? What were the strengths and weaknesses of the training? (Please mention strengths and weaknesses separately) What did you learn in the training? (Please tell about the skills one by one) Main Questions

Session 2: 2.1

Personal and Institutional Beliefs What do you think about gender-based violence? Its causes and police response towards it? My job experience tells me that we live in a male dominated society and in it a woman is wrongfully taken as a commodity and an inferior creature. As a result, we are not ready mentally to give her due social, religious as well as legal rights. Indeed, we exploit her in the shape of different things as at the time of elections when we get a vote. Unfortunately, our society always takes he negatively. These things result into the GBV. As far as the attitude of police towards it is concerned, For my part I would say that it is positive and sympathetic. What is the extent of gender-based crimes in your police station? What percentage of gender-based violence cases is not reported? What are the reasons for non-reporting? 70 percent cases are not reported. Some of the reasons of non reporting are lack of education, social pressure, political involvement. Do you think other policemen also share similar beliefs? Yes. Complaint Recording How do the victims/relatives of victims of gender-based violence complain? 4

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2.3

Different complainants have different attitude and behaviour. Do the complainants come alone? Alone. But at time they accompany with some one reliable. Do the victims bring their relatives along? Do they bring some influential from the area long? It varies from complaint to complaint. Do you it is easy for women to visit your police station to complain? We have reasonable atmosphere. Do you think registering womens complaints of violence against them is different from other complaints? If yes, how womens complaints are different? Yes. There is difference. In GBV the dispute is between a male and a female partner while in other case there is a dispute between a male to male one. Did you receive any training or orientation on how to write womens complaints? Not such as. What facilities do you have for registering womens complaints? Yes. What are the issues unique to the women complaints? Karo kari, rape, selling of girls and forced marriages are some issues unique to women. How do you write complaints? How do you maintain record of the complaints? We follow the usual pattern to write complaints and maintain a roznamcha (daily diary). Do you think the victims feel comfortable while getting their complaints registered? Yes. They do Do the victims have trust in reporting and recording the complaints? Yes. They feel confidence in us therefore, they come to us for instant relief. Do you think the women can visit the police stations easily? Do you think it is easy to investigate gender based violence? Yes. I think so. In my experienced opinion, I think GBV cases are a bit difficult to deal with. In there are some reasons. One of them is no direct access to female victims to investigate the case. How many complaints are false? Why false complaints are registered? What are the motives behind the false complaints? Yes. There is a good ratio of false complaints as well. Mostly false complaints are registered to pressurize his/her rival, to achieve monetary benefit from somebody and to malign somebodys character. We have also received some cases of Punjabi women who falsely claim that they have been kidnapped from Punjab and forcedly marriaged here. But when we investigate the matter their this type of claim proves false. Actually they belong to a mafia or group who aim is to earn or grab money. Is there any way to discourage people from getting false complaints registered? Yes. There is a legal way to stop it.

Investigation and its Problems Could you please describe the nature of gender-based violence cases you are currently investigating? They are torture related cases. Could you please describe the problems you are facing while working on genderbased violence cases? Yes. But we different problems with every case. 5

What investigation methods are generally followed in gender-based violence cases? Please tell about them one by one? We work with both parties impartially to reach a justified conclusion and relief. What will you say about the appropriateness of the investigation methods you use in investigating gender-based crimes? Reasonable and mostly fruitful. To what extent people, relatives of the victims and other relevant people cooperate in investigation? What problems do you face from the witnesses during investigation? Different people have different attitude to cooperate. Straight forward personscall spade a spade and cooperate with us in investigation but we also face such type of individuals who play cat and mouse with us. Their cooperation depends upon the nature of complaint and case. Witnesses in most cases vary in their statements and some times make double statements as well. 2.4 Mechanisms and extent of political interference Generally, which kinds of political pressures are exerted upon you while investigating the gender based violence cases? They threat for our transfer and some times life threat as well. How does the political interference affect your work? Due to political pressure we are not able to lead the case to a good conclusion. Do you resist political interference? If yes, how do you do that? Moslty not possible and it is due heavy penetration of politics in our department and culture of landlordism. Do you think some kind of political interference may be positive? Yes. It maybe. But I will say that there should be no pressure either positive of negative and let us do our job.

Session 3:

Suggestions

Kindly give suggestions to improve the training of investigation officers regarding the women complaints? Proper and formal trainings from time to time. How do you think investigation of gender based violence cases be improved? Please suggest some steps? I think there should be no any type negative pressure, support of seniors and good training in investigation. What steps should immediately be taken to improve police attitude towards the victims of gender based violence? I think community policing is a good step towards improving the attitude of police to victims. Their living standard should also be upgraded as they feel confidence while performing their job. How can political interference be reduced in the police work? All the recruitment must be done purely on merit and merit only.

While Writing the Report

Please mention if the key informants/respondents 6

1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7.

made contradictory statements were reluctant to talk about various questions. If yes, what were they? enjoyed talking to you. If yes, which questions respondents enjoyed felt ashamed or guilty of something asked not to report something ended interview abruptly asked to come again

Essential Elements of the Report

1. 2. 3. 4. 5. idioms, nuances instances success stories best practices, innovations, positive steps and their results replicability of the best practice