Actions Against Police - Legal Provision Does Exist

The law enforcement agencies like the police play a very vital role in the smooth running of everyday life, and to be fair to them, they do an excellent job. They are in the unique position of holding tremendous responsibility to serve and protect the interests of the public at large and evoke respect and fear from the general populace.

However, at times this sense of duty and responsibility gets neglected, resulting in either injury or agony to a certain section of people and there needs to be a mechanism where such transgressions from the police are checked and they are also brought to justice. The public will then have the confidence to move against them for any such acts of negligence. Fortunately, the legal system does provide for such a facility and that is the purpose of this article.

So what are the grounds under which you can take action against the police?

a) In cases of false imprisonment of an individual
This kind of an action from the police is the same as a total deprivation of the basic right to liberty for an individual and irrespective of the tenure demands investigation. False imprisonment can occur under the following events:

1. An individual is detained without any justification for the purpose of search.

2. An individual is put under arrest without adequate authority or by use of inappropriate show of power.

3. An individual is put under arrest and is not even informed about the reason of their arrest.

4. An individual is arrested under the wrong grounds or is detained and kept under custody for a period that is much longer than was permissible as per the law.

In all of the above cases involving wrong detention, the onus is on the police to prove that there were sufficient grounds to detain a particular individual and that they have acted as per the law.

What is the procedure or how does an individual take action against the police?

Though the individual may have been detained by a particular police officer from a specific force, the action needs to be taken not against that officer but against the Chief Officer to whom this officer is attached. If it is somebody from the Metropolitan Police, then the Commissioner of Police for that Metropolis should be made responsible for the wrong detention and action proceeded against. That is because these officers, in the highest seat of power, are directly responsible for the actions of their team. Any action against the individual officer is taken only when there is a statement of admission from these top officials that the particular officer had indeed abdicated responsibility and had transgressed his line of authority.

What is the compensation a person can get?
The compensation can be in the form of basic and aggravated damages depending upon the severity of the incident and the extent of humiliation a particular individual had to undergo due to the wrong conduct of the police.

In some cases, the Court may consider awarding exemplary damages if it is proven that the concerned officer's action was indeed very inappropriate, and this could be much bigger than the usual compensation.