Kolkata Police
Encyclopedia
The Kolkata Police Force is one of the two police forces of the India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...

n state of West Bengal
West Bengal
West Bengal is a state in the eastern region of India and is the nation's fourth-most populous. It is also the seventh-most populous sub-national entity in the world, with over 91 million inhabitants. A major agricultural producer, West Bengal is the sixth-largest contributor to India's GDP...

. (The other is the West Bengal Police
West Bengal Police
The West Bengal Police is one of the two police forces of the Indian state of West Bengal....

, which has a separate jurisdiction.)

Kolkata Police has the task of policing the metropolitan area of Kolkata
Kolkata
Kolkata , formerly known as Calcutta, is the capital of the Indian state of West Bengal. Located on the east bank of the Hooghly River, it was the commercial capital of East India...

 (formerly Calcutta), India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...

, as defined under the Calcutta Police Act, 1866 and the Calcutta Suburban Police Act,1866.

Mission

Observance of the following values is at the core of Kolkata Police's daily civil protective duties and criminal investigative functions:
  • Obedience to the Constitution of India
    Constitution of India
    The Constitution of India is the supreme law of India. It lays down the framework defining fundamental political principles, establishes the structure, procedures, powers, and duties of government institutions, and sets out fundamental rights, directive principles, and the duties of citizens...

      and Rule of Law.
  • Respect for the dignity of all those they protect.
  • Fairness and neutrality in enforcement of law.
  • Compassion and building community relations to serve the people better.
  • Uncompromising personal and institutional integrity.

History

The history of the present structure of policing in Kolkata
Kolkata
Kolkata , formerly known as Calcutta, is the capital of the Indian state of West Bengal. Located on the east bank of the Hooghly River, it was the commercial capital of East India...

 goes back to colonial
Colonialism
Colonialism is the establishment, maintenance, acquisition and expansion of colonies in one territory by people from another territory. It is a process whereby the metropole claims sovereignty over the colony and the social structure, government, and economics of the colony are changed by...

 times, when the city was known as "Calcutta", and was a fledging settlement of the English East India Company. Calcutta was founded by an Englishman, Job Charnock
Job Charnock
Job Charnock was a servant and administrator of the English East India Company, traditionally regarded as the founder of the city of Calcutta.-Early life and career:...

, who was then a key functionary of the Company, had anchored his boat Maddapollam at a village called Sutanuti
Sutanuti
Sutanuti was one of the three villages which were merged to form the city of Kolkata in India. The other two villages were Gobindapur and Kalikata. Job Charnock, an administrator with the British East India Company is traditionally credited with the honour of founding the city...

 on the eastern banks of the Hooghly, in 1690. This formed the nucleus of a fortified military settlement which in 1696 (3 years after Charnock's death) along with the villages of Gobindapur
Gobindapur
Gobindapur was one of the three villages which were merged to form the city of Kolkata in India. The other two villages were Kalikata and Sutanuti...

 and Kalikata
Kalikata
Kalikata was one of the three villages which were merged to form the city of Kolkata in India. The other two villages were Gobindapur and Sutanuti. Job Charnock, an administrator with the British East India Company is traditionally credited with the honour of founding the city...

, became a prime location for the East India Company's operations in Bengal
Bengal
Bengal is a historical and geographical region in the northeast region of the Indian Subcontinent at the apex of the Bay of Bengal. Today, it is mainly divided between the sovereign land of People's Republic of Bangladesh and the Indian state of West Bengal, although some regions of the previous...

.

Policing in Calcutta's earliest days was confined to the Mughal
Mughal Empire
The Mughal Empire ,‎ or Mogul Empire in traditional English usage, was an imperial power from the Indian Subcontinent. The Mughal emperors were descendants of the Timurids...

 administration and their local representatives. Bengal was still technically a part of the Mughal Empire, but the Nawabs of Bengal, based in Murshidabad
Murshidabad
Murshidabad is a city in Murshidabad district of West Bengal state in India. The city of Murshidabad is located on the southern bank of the Bhagirathi, a distributary of the Ganges River. It was the capital of undivided Bengal during the Mughal rule. Nawabs of Bengal used to rule Bengal from this...

 in North Bengal
North Bengal
North Bengal is a term used for the northern parts of Bangladesh and West Bengal. The Bangladesh part denotes the Rajshahi Division. Generally it is the area lying west of Jamuna River and north of Padma River, and includes the Barind Tract. The West Bengal part denotes Cooch Behar, Darjeeling,...

, were its effective rulers. The Watch and Ward functions were entrusted to a Kotwal or town prefect who had 45 peons under him, armed with traditional weapons like staves and spear
Spear
A spear is a pole weapon consisting of a shaft, usually of wood, with a pointed head.The head may be simply the sharpened end of the shaft itself, as is the case with bamboo spears, or it may be made of a more durable material fastened to the shaft, such as flint, obsidian, iron, steel or...

s, to deal with miscreants.
In 1720, the East India Company formally appointed an officer to be in charge of civil and criminal administration. He was assisted by an Indian functionary commonly known as "black deputy" or "black zamindar". Under him were three naib-dewans, one of whom was in charge of the police. The settlement was divided into "thanas" (Police stations) under "thanadars" who had in turn contingents of "naiks" and "paiks". A small contingent of river police was also formed.

A statute passed in the year 1778 raised the strength of the police in Calcutta to 700 paiks, 31 thanadars and 34 naibs under a superintendent
Superintendent (police)
Superintendent , often shortened to "super", is a rank in British police services and in most English-speaking Commonwealth nations. In many Commonwealth countries the full version is superintendent of police...

. In 1780 commissioners of conservancy were appointed for the town who also ooked after watch and ward. Policing was still very loosely organized.

In 1794 justices of peace were appointed for the municipal administration of Calcutta and its suburbs, under a chief magistrate
Magistrate
A magistrate is an officer of the state; in modern usage the term usually refers to a judge or prosecutor. This was not always the case; in ancient Rome, a magistratus was one of the highest government officers and possessed both judicial and executive powers. Today, in common law systems, a...

 who was directly in charge of the Police. In 1806 justices of peace were constituted as magistrates of 24 Parganas
24 Parganas
24 Parganas district is a former district of the Indian state of West Bengal. The district was split into two districts — North 24 Parganas district and South 24 Parganas district, with effect from 1 March 1986....

 and parts of the adjacent districts within a 20-mile radius of the town.

The middle decades of the 19th century witnessed a greater systematization and institutionalization of policing in Calcutta. William Coats Blacquiere, a charismatic city magistrate inaugurated a network of spies or "goendas". In 1845 a committee under J.H. Patton brought about key changes in police organization which now began to be modeled on the London Metropolitan Police. A Commissioner of Police was appointed with powers of a justice of peace to preserve law and order, detect crime and apprehend offenders

In 1856 the Governor-General
Governor-General
A Governor-General, is a vice-regal person of a monarch in an independent realm or a major colonial circonscription. Depending on the political arrangement of the territory, a Governor General can be a governor of high rank, or a principal governor ranking above "ordinary" governors.- Current uses...

 promulgated an Act treating Calcutta Police as a separate organization and S. Wauchope, who was then the chief magistrate of Calcutta, was appointed as the first Commissioner of Police.

He had to face difficult days because of the First War of Independence of 1857, the first upsurge against British rule. He handled the situation ably and was knight
Knight
A knight was a member of a class of lower nobility in the High Middle Ages.By the Late Middle Ages, the rank had become associated with the ideals of chivalry, a code of conduct for the perfect courtly Christian warrior....

ed for his achievement. During the incumbency of his successor V.H. Schalch the Calcutta Police Act and the Calcutta Suburban Police Act, which are still in force, were enacted in 1866. Two years earlier (1864) the Commissioner of Police had become the Chairman of the Justices as well and a Deputy Commissioner was appointed to look after the executive police.
It was Sir Stuart Hogg who first set up the Detective Department in Calcutta Police in November 1868 with A. Younan as the superintendent and R. Lamb as the first-class inspector. Hogg was both the Commissioner of Police and the Chairman of the Calcutta Municipal Corporation. His name is still remembered in the Hogg Market, more popularly known as the New Market
New Market, Calcutta
New Market is a market in Kolkata situated on Lindsay Street. Technically, it referred to an enclosed market but today in local parlance the entire Lindsay Street shopping area is often known as New Market.-History:...

, one of the landmarks of the city of Kolkata. Sir Fredrick Halliday, who was appointed as the Commissioner of Police in 1906, also introduced several changes in the administration of Calcutta Police including the system of running a Control Room. His biggest achievement was the creation of the Special Branch
Special Branch
Special Branch is a label customarily used to identify units responsible for matters of national security in British and Commonwealth police forces, as well as in the Royal Thai Police...

 in June 1909. For his numerous contributions to the growth of the city police, he may rightly be called the father of modern Calcutta Police. During his tenure Calcutta Police was divided into three town divisions and two suburban divisions.

Another person who deserves mention is Sir Charles Augustus Tegart, who headed the Detective Department and virtually controlled the Special Branch since his joining Calcutta Police in 1902. He was the first officer of the Indian Police (IP) in the organization and on his report the Special Branch was created. He reorganized the city police force and made it efficient. A highly decorated officer, he was the Commissioner of Police in the years 1923-31 and was admired for keeping the city free from crime. However, he was unpopular with freedom fighters
Resistance movement
A resistance movement is a group or collection of individual groups, dedicated to opposing an invader in an occupied country or the government of a sovereign state. It may seek to achieve its objects through either the use of nonviolent resistance or the use of armed force...

 and his encounters with revolutionaries are a part of popular Bengali
Bengali people
The Bengali people are an ethnic community native to the historic region of Bengal in South Asia. They speak Bengali , which is an Indo-Aryan language of the eastern Indian subcontinent, evolved from the Magadhi Prakrit and Sanskrit languages. In their native language, they are referred to as বাঙালী...

  folklore. Worth mentioning here are the names of three more Bengalees named Ramgati Banerjee, Sukumar Sengupta and one Zakir Hussain who, for the first time in the Indian history, topped the written examination for the coveted job of Imperial Police (IP) Officers, in 1920. During the Salt movement, The Calcutta Police was controlled by Charles Tegart as Police Commissioner, Ramgati Banerjee as DC(South) and Sukumar Sengupta as DC(North). Later, Ramgati Banerjee left the job and took up teaching as profession, Zakir Hussain left job also to join as First Governor-General of East Pakistan and Sukumar Sengupta continued in the job to become the first Bengalee Inspector General of Police, West Bengal soon after independence.

It may be remembered that the history of Calcutta Police under British rule was an adjunct of the colonial administration. Hence its role was primarily repressive and anti-nationalist.
After India gained independence
Indian independence movement
The term Indian independence movement encompasses a wide area of political organisations, philosophies, and movements which had the common aim of ending first British East India Company rule, and then British imperial authority, in parts of South Asia...

 from British rule in 1947, Calcutta Police was re-organised as an arm of a newly emerged nation-state keen on consolidating its freedom. Surendra Nath Chatterjee was the first Indian Commissioner of Police.

The logo

Each symbol of the Kolkata Police seal has a special significance.
  • At the center is the Ashok Stambha, which has been adopted from Ashoka
    Ashoka
    Ashok Maurya or Ashoka , popularly known as Ashoka the Great, was an Indian emperor of the Maurya Dynasty who ruled almost all of the Indian subcontinent from ca. 269 BC to 232 BC. One of India's greatest emperors, Ashoka reigned over most of present-day India after a number of military conquests...

    's Sarnath
    Sarnath
    Sarnath or Sārnātha is the deer park where Gautama Buddha first taught the Dharma, and where the Buddhist Sangha came into existence through the enlightenment of Kondanna. Sarnath is located 13 kilometres north-east of Varanasi, in Uttar Pradesh, India...

     Lion Capital
    Lion Capital
    Lion Capital can refer to:* The Lion Capital of Asoka, a sculpture used as the national emblem of India* Lion Capital LLP, a British private equity firm formerly affiliated with Hicks Muse Tate & Furst* Lion Capital, a former affiliate of Apollo Management...

    .
  • The 24-spoked wheel is referred to as the Dharmachakra. Dharma
    Dharma
    Dharma means Law or Natural Law and is a concept of central importance in Indian philosophy and religion. In the context of Hinduism, it refers to one's personal obligations, calling and duties, and a Hindu's dharma is affected by the person's age, caste, class, occupation, and gender...

     or Religion is the manifestation of the inner conscience and as Swami Vivekananda
    Swami Vivekananda
    Swami Vivekananda , born Narendranath Dutta , was the chief disciple of the 19th century mystic Ramakrishna Paramahansa and the founder of the Ramakrishna Math and the Ramakrishna Mission...

     said: "Religion is the manifestation of the divinity already in man".
  • Below the Dharmachakra is inscribed Satyameva Jayate
    Satyameva Jayate
    "Satyameva Jayate" is a Hindu mantra from the ancient scripture Mundaka Upanishad. Upon independence of India, it was adopted as the national motto of India. It is inscribed in Devanagari script at the base of the national emblem. The emblem and words 'Satyameva Jayate' are inscribed on one side...

    which signifies that Truth always prevails.
  • In between the two circles, which encircle the Ashok Stambha, is the symbolic peacock, which is the national bird. The seal signifies upholding Truth
    Truth
    Truth has a variety of meanings, such as the state of being in accord with fact or reality. It can also mean having fidelity to an original or to a standard or ideal. In a common usage, it also means constancy or sincerity in action or character...

    , Valour and Justice
    Justice
    Justice is a concept of moral rightness based on ethics, rationality, law, natural law, religion, or equity, along with the punishment of the breach of said ethics; justice is the act of being just and/or fair.-Concept of justice:...

    . "We who enforce the law must not merely obey it. We have an obligation to set a moral example, which those whom we protect can follow."

Structure

At present Kolkata Police has 5 divisions covering 66 Police Stations. It has a strength of approximately 26,000 and a territorial jurisdiction of 185.0sq km**. There are 8 battalions of Armed Police well as specialized branches like the Detective Department, Special Branch, Reserve Force, Traffic Police, Enforcement Branch, Wireless Branch and Security Control Organization. The force is also incorporating Information Technology in a big way - a computer network connects all Divisions, Police Stations and Battalions and there is a separate Computer Section as well.
Kolkata Police has thus evolved from a colonial force into a developmental and stability-oriented component of executive governance. It is an integral part of the vision of a free and fair society, which forms the basis of modern India
Kolkata Police is an organization with a complex command structure that reflects the diverse range of tasks it is expected to undertake. The administration of the Kolkata Police Force is vested in the Commissioner of Police.
The members of the Kolkata Police force, under the general supervision of the Commissioner of Police, are attached to one of the following units:

Units

  • Headquarters Force

  • Detective Department
  • Special Branch
  • Home Guard
    Home Guard
    -Military:*British Home Guard*Combat Groups of the Working Class *Confederate Home Guard, during the American Civil War*Croatian Home Guard and Imperial Croatian Home Guard*Danish Home Guard...

  • Mounted Police
    Mounted police
    Mounted police are police who patrol on horseback or camelback. They continue to serve in remote areas and in metropolitan areas where their day-to-day function may be picturesque or ceremonial, but they are also employed in crowd control because of their mobile mass and height advantage and...

  • Special Branch
    Special Branch
    Special Branch is a label customarily used to identify units responsible for matters of national security in British and Commonwealth police forces, as well as in the Royal Thai Police...

  • Enforcement Branch
  • Traffic Police
    Kolkata Traffic Police
    Kolkata Traffic Police has the job of managing the flow of traffic in the city of Kolkata. It is traffic police unit within the Kolkata Police....

  • Reserve Force
  • Wireless Branch
  • Security Control
  • Armed Police
  • Special Task Force
  • Combat Battalion
  • North and North Suburban division
  • South and South Suburban division
  • South East Suburban division
  • Central division
  • Port division
  • Eastern Suburban division

Despite that Kolkata Police have some special forces
  • the Rapid Action force (RAF) and Special Action Force (SAF) with approximately 160 personnel
  • Commando
    Commando
    In English, the term commando means a specific kind of individual soldier or military unit. In contemporary usage, commando usually means elite light infantry and/or special operations forces units, specializing in amphibious landings, parachuting, rappelling and similar techniques, to conduct and...

     Force with approximately 200 personnel
  • Combat Force with approximately 200 personnel
  • Kolkata Armed Police (KAP) - 8 Battalion

Rank structure

The rank structure of Kolkata Police officers is as follows (in descending order of seniority):
  • Commissioner of Police
  • (One) Special Commissioners Of Police
  • (Three) Additional Commissioners of Police
  • (Three) Special Additional Commissioners of Police
  • (Five) Joint Commissioners of Police
  • Deputy Commissioners of Police
  • Assistant Commissioners of Police
  • Inspectors
  • Sergeant/Sub-Inspector/Wireless Supervisor
  • Assistant Sub-Inspector
  • Naik
  • Constable/Sepoy
  • Wireless Helper

Jurisdiction

The jurisdiction of the Kolkata Police covers the area of Kolkata District
Kolkata District
Kolkata district is an administrative district of the Indian state of West Bengal. It contains the center part of the city of Kolkata. The jurisdiction of the Kolkata...

 and an adjacent area as well. That adjacent area, like Kolkata
District, is within the boundaries of the Kolkata Municipal Corporation
Kolkata Municipal Corporation
Kolkata Municipal Corporation is responsible for the civic infrastructure and administration of the city of Kolkata. The organization is known, in short, as KMC . This civic administrative body administers an area of 185 sq. km. Its motto, Purosree Bibardhan, is inscribed on its emblem in Bengali...

.
The Kolkata Police's entire area comprises all 141 wards of the KMC .

See also

  • West Bengal Police
    West Bengal Police
    The West Bengal Police is one of the two police forces of the Indian state of West Bengal....

  • Police stations in Kolkata
    Police stations in Kolkata
    The police stations in Kolkata , in the area area under Kolkata Police are:#Alipore#Amherst Street#Ballygunge#Beleghata#Beniapukur#Bhowanipur#Bowbazar#Burrabazar#Burtola#Charu Market#Chetla#Chitpur#Cossipore#Ekbalpore#Entally#Garden Reach#Gariahat...

  • Assam Police
    Assam Police
    -Organizational structure:Assam Police comes under direct control of Department of Home Affairs, Government of Assam.The Assam Police is headed by Director General of Police DGP Shankar Barua...

  • Mumbai Police
    Mumbai Police
    The Mumbai Police is the police force of the city of Mumbai, India. It has the primary responsibilities of law enforcement and investigation within the limits of Mumbai. The department's motto is ""...

  • Kerala Police
    Kerala Police
    The Kerala State Police is the law enforcement agency for the state of Kerala, India. Kerala Police has its headquarters in Thiruvananthapuram, the state capital. The Police training college was set up by Travancore Maharaja in Thiruvananthapuram in mid 20th centuary. In 2004,a larger Kerala...

  • Andhra Pradesh police
    Andhra Pradesh Police
    The Andhra Pradesh Police is the law enforcement agency for the state of Andhra Pradesh in India.-Organizational structure:Andhra Pradesh Police comes under direct control of Department of Home Affairs, Government of Andhra Pradesh....

  • Maharashtra Police
    Maharashtra Police
    Maharashtra State Police is the law enforcement agency responsible for the Indian state of Maharashtra. Maharashtra Police has one of the largest police forces in the country...

  • Department of Police, Delhi
    Department of Police, Delhi
    The Department of Police , also known as Delhi Police , is the main law and order agency for the National Capital Territory of Delhi...

  • Uttar Pradesh Police
    Uttar Pradesh Police
    Uttar Pradesh Police is the police force of the state of Uttar Pradesh. UP Police is the largest police force in the world working under a single command.The Uttar Pradesh Police was formed in 1861 when the Indian Police Act came to be operational...

  • Hyderabad City Police
    Hyderabad City Police
    The Hyderabad City Police is the local law enforcement agency for the city of Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh. It is headed by the city police commissioner. According to The Hyderabad Protector magazine editor Bharat Verma, Abdul Khayum Khan, the Commissioner of Police, Hyderabad, has brought in a...

  • Indian Imperial Police
  • Kolkata Police Friendship Cup Football Tournament
    Kolkata Police Friendship Cup Football Tournament
    Kolkata Police Friendship Cup Football Tournament is a football tournament organised by Kolkata Police every year for the local clubs of Kolkata...

  • Kolkata Police community policing initiatives
    Kolkata Police community policing initiatives
    In Kolkata Police, community relations program has attempted to address problems such as crime control through a working partenership with the community. Community institutions such as families, media, educational institutions, CSO are key partners with the police and their views are taken...

  • Andhra Pradesh Police Academy
    Andhra Pradesh Police Academy
    Andhra Pradesh Police Academy also known as AP Police Academy Hyderabad and APPA is located in Himayat Sagar neighbourhood, Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh, India....

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