Bangalore: It's cops vs cops as two branches clash over issue of promotion

The vexed issue of promoting auxiliary police officers to IPS has raised its head again, with the state government’s decision to constitute an expert committee to look into the long-pending issue leading to a showdown between the civil police and the auxiliary police.

The civil police is responsible for maintaining law and order, preventing, detecting and investigating crime. The auxiliary police comprises reserve and armed police and wireless service.

The state government tasked a committee — set up in November last year on the high court’s direction to assess the merits of the request made by the auxiliary police — to submit a report on the issue within two months.

This has led to a confrontation between civil and auxiliary police, as the civil police are of the opinion that the auxiliary police are not on par with them. “The training given to the auxiliary police is very different from how we are trained. They are specialised units and their work is different from what we do. How can they handle things if they are posted as district police heads?,” asked a non-IPS officer who is serving as SP.

Another SP said if auxiliary staff are promoted to IPS, it will not only affect policing, but will also deny deserving civil police officials of getting promoted to IPS. “A civil sub-inspector or direct DySPs selected through the KPSC, who are trained in professional policing, will miss an opportunity to be promoted to IPS if they (auxiliary police) are promoted to IPS. This is not just about getting promoted to IPS, but the matter of professional policing,” he said.

However, M Prakash, retired SP, KSRP, felt that auxiliary staff were being treated as untouchables. “If a reserve policeman has put in several years of service, why should he not be promoted to IPS?” said the retired SP.