20.5. Inspection of police stations.

- (1) Every police station and post in a district shall

be thoroughly inspected by a gazetted officer twice in each year.
At least one such inspection shall be carried out by the Superintendent.
At such inspections of police stations a return for each quarters working since the last
inspection shall be made out and submitted with an inspection report in Form 20.5(1) to
the Deputy Inspector-General, attached to the weekly diary of the Superintendent.
In discussing crime, offences against the person and against property shall be commented
on separately, and theft of, and illicit traffic in, cattle and other animals, shall be
dealt with separately from offences against other classes of property. Attention shall be
paid to the technical efficiency of the investigating staff and co-operation wight neighbouring
police stations and the district central Investigating agency. In commenting on
the working of police officers in such inspection reports care shall be exercised to avoid
basing an opinion merely upon statistical results, percentages of convictions and similar
data which are apt to be misleading.
Reports of inspecting officers should be written with a view to conveying instruction
and guidance for the future to the officer, whose work has been inspected. Such reports
should invariably be shown to the officers inspected, either at once or on their return from
higher authority, and should be translated into the vernacular if the officer inspected is unable
to understand English. It is especially important that inspection reports on police
stations and notes in the gazetted officers Minute Book should be helpful and constructive
and that these reports and notes should be carefully studied and acted upon by the
officer in charge of the police station.
Two results of an inspection should be :- (1) that the inspecting officer should have
come to a definite conclusion as to the state of crime (satisfactory or unsatisfactory) and
the chief causes of such crime; (2) that the officer in charge of the police station should
have received active assistance, facilities and suggestions from the inspecting officer towards
the improvement of the state of crime.
(2) Informal inspections of police stations and posts shall be made as frequently as the
Superintendent may consider necessary and desirable, having regard to the circumstances
of each particular police station and post. At such inspections, officers shall not spend
more time than is necessary in examining registers, but shall try to make themselves
acquainted
with the personnel of the police station or post as the case may be and shall
enquire into the discuss matters concerning current crime, cases and procedure with the
officers in charge.
They shall assist such officer with advice, direction, encouragement or warning as may
be required, and shall listen to and deal with any requests he or his subordinates may have
to make.
(3) Except for purposes of investigation, or other special reason, a police station or post
shall not ordinarily be visited by a gazetted officer more than once in the same month.
(4) At the end of every quarter each Superintendent shall submit, through the District
Magistrate, to the Deputy Inspector-General, an inspection return in Form 20.5(4) showing
the inspection duty performed during the quarter by the gazetted officers in the
district.