Police Organizational Resources and Crime Prevention in Bangladesh : An Examination

Police Organizational Resources and Crime Prevention in Bangladesh : An Examination

  The lack of financial resources is one of the major impediments to enhance police capabilities in Bangladesh. Since police stations are the focal point of service delivery, thus the need for more resources at the police station is obvious. Police officers claim that due to resource constraints they are unable to provide a fast and effective response to crime incidents or requests for police service. It is important to mention that the introduction of modern technology such as patrol car, two-way radio, and telephone have significantly improved the police operational efficiency in the Western World. The purpose of this paper is to examine the police organizational resources devoted to crime prevention efforts in Bangladesh. That is, to what extent limited resources of the police affect their operational efficiency and investigative capabilities. An in-depth interview and content analysis techniques were used to collect the data for the present study. Commanding officers of the police stations claimed that due to lack of resources they are unable to deliver the very best police service to the community. Thus, in the absences of government allocation police are managing funds through dishonest ways. It is found that the police station’s information systems are not computerized mainly due to lack of funds. As a result, the intelligence gathering and analysis capabilities of the police are very limited. Senior officials believe that the introduction of Computer Assisted Fingerprint Identification Systems, and DNA profiling would enable speedy and accurate identification of criminal suspects, which in turn, will greatly increase their clearance rate. The allocations for improving various support services are not sufficient to cope with the growing public demands for police services. Thus, the government should make the policy decisions and allocate more resources for increasing police effectiveness in reducing crime and violence in Bangladesh.