Strongly recommended article, explains why police is compelled to gun down people. It is not because police wants to, it's because of the slow judiciary and how it has failed to prove as a crime deterrent.

I also add some of my opinions in the thread. https://www.livemint.com/opinion/columns/how-more-policing-could-reduce-extra-judicial-killings-11595260298271.html

Before starting id like to add that there are broadly 2 types of crimes - Impulsive (Rape, murder & assaults) and deterrable crimes (theft, mugging, vandalism, shop lifting). Police in no way can deter impulsive crimes, only judiciary can (Will explain later)...

talking about deterrable crimes, research papers have shown that efficient & scientific approaches to policing have brought down the deterrable crime rate. I'll explain later.

Author starts w police brutality. I'd like to add more, every country in the world has a different police culture due to the diff types of population they cater to. Hence every police in some way is brutal, for example Japan, as I consider the most professional police has it....

Japanese police (1 of the most professional) has its own problems eg- they are insensitive & biased towards other races (foreigners) and their abnormally high conviction rate is because of the exhausting interrogation techniques and how criminal procedures are designed.

very true!
as stated above, policemen dont like extra judicial killings but they are forced to. Remember, police is a "LAW ENFORCEMENT" body, it has no mandates to serve justice, but its forced to act upon as the judiciary is clogged-up.

PRIMARY REASON WHY CRIMES (mostly IMPULSIVE) HAPPEN
It's called the rational choice theory. Crimes happen because perpetrators think that the reward for committing a crime outweighs the punishment, Hence the perpetrator makes the RATIONAL CHOICE. It's a criminological theory.

"weak capacity of the police". Beg to differ on this. Post impulsive crimes, majority of the cases are solved in the first month itself, in fact ppl are picked up for questioning the same day. As mentioned before even an efficient Police cannot stop impulsive crimes.

"Too many activities are criminalised", this is exactly what I was talking to a police offcr few days back. He had a very valid point, he said that most of the crimes (barring ones which inflict serious bodily injuries) should be decriminalised.

What we proposed is a system where heavy fines and compensations would be slapped on the offenders. Negotiations would be supervised and taped at the SP/DCP office to eliminate any malpractices. This would free up the courts as well as the jails.

Incarcerating a person for a minor offence would,
1)burden police station
2)over burden the court
3)over crowd the prisons
4)Incarcerating for minor offences means nothing & usually doesn't guarantee deterrence. it has been found that recidivism% is high in these cases.

When those who have been bestowed w delivering justice are slow, other depts take up their role, here the police. A law enforced agency should not be mistaken with a Justice body. IT IS ALARMING

Author talked about higher and severe punishment like death sentence as a crime deterrence.
So, are death sentences really a deterrent ? NO. Death sentence cannot alone deter crime, explained later

Author suggest more policing to bring down crime,FOR SURE WE NEED MORE POLICING. But that will only bring down the deterrable crimes, and not the impulsive crimes.

So how do we deter deterrable crimes?

These can be deterred by efficient policing methods. Hot spot identification + constant patrolling + permanent police presence (Koban) are most likely to deter crimes. Here's what we (IPS, lawyer & i) had suggested.
https://medium.com/p/6ea0ce32f98e/edit

How do we deter impulsive crimes?

From the beginning ive maintained the position that impulsive crimes cannot be deterred by better policing, claims backed by experiment results. Only judiciary can deter impulsive crimes.
Now the question is, how can they (courts) deter crime ?

Following the Beccaria's model of deterrence, which is followed in Singapore. It states that, in order to instil fear in the minds of the criminals, courts need to be-
1. Consistent w the punishment
2. Severe w punishment (death)
3. Fast, punishments should be delivered fast!

The above 3 points are the things which are primarily missing from our system making the judiciary slow, hence, as the author stated, criminals dont fear the law

In the case of Nirbhaya, sentence was out in 2 year but got delayed due to the endless appeal and petitions.

To conclude an efficient police would stop deterrable crime and an efficient judiciary (w 3 points implemented) would deter impulsive crimes like rape.

sorry if I made It boring, these are purely my personal opinion.

cc: @srajagopalan @IDFCinstitute

HOW TO DETER DETERRABLE CRIMES ? https://medium.com/indra-networks/police-patrolling-a-comprehensive-analysis-6ea0ce32f98e

For those who want to know why I consider Japanese police as the most professional police force. https://twitter.com/KushalSinha001/status/1254677919323918336?s=20