Indian Police Service
The Indian Police Service is a civil service under the All India Services. It replaced the Indian Imperial Police in 1948, a year after India became independent from the British Empire.
Along with the Indian Administrative Service and the Indian Forest Service, the IPS is part of the All India Services – its officers are employed by both the Union Government and by individual states governments.
The service provides leadership to various state and central police forces, including the Central Armed Police Forces, the National Security Guard, Narcotics Control Bureau, National Disaster Response Force, Intelligence Bureau, Research and Analysis Wing, Special Protection Group, National Investigation Agency, and the Central Bureau of Investigation.
History
Indian Imperial Police
In 1861, the Parliament of the United Kingdom introduced the Indian Councils Act, 1861. The act created the foundation of a modern and professional police bureaucracy in India. It introduced a new cadre of police, called Superior Police Services, later known as the Indian Imperial Police. The highest rank in the service was the inspector general for each province. The rank of inspector general was equated to that of a brigadier, and similar ranks in the Indian Armed Forces, as per a central warrant of precedence issued in 1937.In 1902–1903, a police commission was established to recommend reforms under Sir Andrew Fraser and Lord Curzon. It recommended the appointment of Indians as officers in the police. Previously, Indians could rise only to the rank of an inspector, the senior N.C.O. position. However they were not part of the Indian Imperial Police.
From 1920 onward, the Indian Imperial Police was open to Indians and the entrance examination for the service was conducted both in India and England.
Prior to Independence, senior police officers belonging to the Imperial Police were appointed by the secretary of state on the basis of a competitive examination. The first open civil service examination for admittance to the service was held in England in June 1893 and the ten top candidates were appointed as probationers in the Indian Imperial Police. It is not possible to identify an exact date for when the Indian Police Service came formally into being.
Around 1907, the secretary of state's officers were directed to wear the letters "IP" on their epaulettes in order to distinguish them from other officers not recruited by the secretary through examination. Therefore, 1907 could be regarded as the starting point for the IPS. In 1948, a year after India gained independence; the Imperial Police was formally replaced by the Indian Police Service.
Indian Police Service
The Indian Police Service was created under Article 312, XIV of the Constitution of India.As per media reports, there is a massive shortage of IPS officers in India, amounting to nearly 19% to 22% of the sanctioned strength.
Medals and decorations
Despite having a very small cadre strength, many IPS officers have been awarded the highest gallantry awards. The current national security advisor of India, Ajit Doval, was an IPS officer who earned the Kirti Chakra for his gallant actions during operation Black Thunder. Though generally deployed in supervisory roles at senior levels, it is not uncommon for IPS officers to be in the field taking active part in maintaining law and order. IPS officers have been posted to various UN Missions and several have been awarded the United Nations Medal. Many exceptional IPS officers have been awarded with Padma awards from time to time.Objective
The First Police Commission, appointed on 17 August 1865, contained detailed guidelines for the desired system of police in India and defined the police as a governmental department to enforce the law, maintain order and to detect and prevent crime across the region. The Indian Police Service is not a force but a service providing leaders and commanders to staff the state police and all-India Central Armed Police Forces. Its members are the senior officers of the police. With time Indian Police Service's objectives were updated and redefined, the current roles and functions of an Indian Police Service officer are as follows:- To fulfil duties based on border responsibilities, in the areas of maintenance of public peace and order, crime prevention, investigation, and detection, collection of intelligence, VIP security, counterterrorism, border policing, railway policing, tackling smuggling, drug trafficking, economic offenses, corruption in public life, emergency management, enforcement of socioeconomics legislation, biodiversity and protection of environmental laws, etc.
- Leading and commanding the Indian Intelligence Agencies like Research and Analysis Wing, Intelligence Bureau, Central Bureau of Investigation, Criminal Investigation Department etc., Indian Federal Law Enforcement Agencies, Civil and Armed Police Forces in all the states and union territories.
- Led and commanded various Central Armed Police Forces which include the Central Police Organisations such as Border Security Force, Central Reserve Police Force, Indo-Tibetan Border Police, National Security Guard, Central Industrial Security Force, Vigilance Organisations and Indian Federal Law Enforcement Agencies.
- To lead and command the force with courage, uprightness, dedication and a strong sense of service to the people.
- Endeavor to teach in the police forces under their command such values and norms as would help them serve the people better.
- Inculcate integrity of the highest order, sensitivity to people's aspirations in a fast-changing social and economic milieu, respect for human rights, the broad liberal perspective of law and justice, and a high standard of professionalism.
Selection
Training
The training of IPS officer recruits is conducted at Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel National Police Academy in Hyderabad. The authorized cadre strength of the Indian Police Service is 4920.. The Civil List of IPS officers is an updated list maintained by the Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India that lists the posting details of all IPS officers in India. This Civil List can be accessed from the MHA website. It allows searching for an IPS officer based on their name, batch, or cadre.After completion of almost 2 years of training, IPS probationers are awarded a master's degree in criminal justice management from NALSAR University of Law.
State cadres
Cadre allocation policy
The Union Government announced a new cadre allocation policy for the All India Services in August 2017, touting it as a policy to ensure national integration of the bureaucracy as officers and ensure the All-India character of the services. Under the new policy, the existing 26 cadres have been divided into five zones in the new policy by the Department of Personnel and Training of Government of India.Under the new policy, a candidate has to first give their choice in the descending order of preference from amongst the various Zones. Subsequently, the candidate has to indicate one preference of cadre from each preferred zone. The candidate indicates their second cadre preference for every preferred zone subsequently. The process continues till a preference for all the cadres is indicated by the candidate. The preference for the zones/cadres remains in the same order and no change is permitted.
Officers continue to work in the cadre they are allotted or are deputed to the Government of India.
| Zone | Cadres |
| Zone-I | AGMUT, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Punjab, Rajasthan and Haryana. |
| Zone-II | Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand and Odisha. |
| Zone-III | Gujarat, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh. |
| Zone-IV | West Bengal, Sikkim, Assam-Meghalaya, Manipur, Tripura and Nagaland. |
| Zone-V | Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Telangana. |
Old cadre allocation policies
Till 2008 there was no system of preference of state cadre by the candidates; the candidates, if not placed in the insider vacancy of their home states, were allotted to different states in alphabetical order of the roster, beginning with the letters A, H, M, T for that particular year. For example, if in a particular year, the roster begins from 'A', which means the first candidate on the roster will go to the Andhra Pradesh state cadre of IPS, the next one to Bihar, and subsequently to Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, and so on in alphabetical order. The next year the roster starts from 'H', for either Haryana or Himachal Pradesh. This highly intricate system, in vogue since the mid-1980s, had ensured that officers from different states were placed all over India.The system of permanent state cadres has also resulted in wide disparities in the kind of professional exposure for officers when we compare officers in small and big and also developed and backward states. Changes of state cadre are permitted on grounds of marriage to an All India Service officer of another state cadre or under other exceptional circumstances. The officer may go to their home state cadre on deputation for a limited period, after which one has to invariably return to the cadre allotted to him or her.
From 2008 to 2017 IPS officers were allotted to state cadres at the beginning of their service. There was one cadre for each Indian state, except for two joint cadres: Assam–Meghalaya and Arunachal Pradesh–Goa–Mizoram–Union Territories. The "insider-outsider ratio" is maintained as 1:2, with one-third of the direct recruits as 'insiders' from the same state. The rest were posted as outsiders according to the 'roster' in states other than their home states, as per their preference.