Clean cops at the top need of the hour, says Julio Ribeiro

The image of police officers has taken a beating recently and former top cop Julio Ribeiro said that citizens and NGOs should push harder for clean cops at the top.

“It is important that people who are clean head the force. It sets good examples for juniors. I have lost hope for police reforms but people are fighting for it and I hope they are successful. Good policing is our right,” said Ribeiro at a press conference on Police Reforms.

The conference was held at the Press Club Mumbai and was organized by PRAJA, an NGO which empowers people to work towards good governance. They were flanked by Nawaz Kotwal, member Common Wealth Human Rights Initiative.

“It is not that there are no clean cops in the police. Sanjeev Dayal is one of the most honest cops. His juniors will vouch for that. We should have clean people at the top,” added Ribeiro.

The organisation has collected around 17,000 signatures that will be presented soon to the CM for one of the oldest pending reforms.

Besides police reforms, filling up of 1,100 vacancies and crime against women and house break-ins will be prominent issues taken up.

Pointing out the loopholes in the police Act, speakers stated it to be root cause of all problems. “We have a colonial law (since 1861) that came soon after the first war of independence. The idea of it was to suppress people,” said Nitian Mehta, trustee of the Praja Foundation.