"تقرير عن إدارة رئاسة بومباي لسنة ١٨٨١-١٨٨٢" [و‎‎٨‎٠] (٥٨٩/١٦٤)

POLICE.
1881-82.]
93
destroys the average as against numbers of cases in which the
police have been successful. . And it has been remarked that
the zeal and energy of the police in this respect, cannot be mea
sured by statistics, for it is admitted on all hands that the amount
of loss is usually exaggerated, and that the recovery of stolen
property often depends upon a lucky find.
The only offences committed by persons who have taken to
crime as a profession were the cattle-liftings which are habi
tually practised in Hyderabad and the Upper Sind Frontier.
The exploits of the gang of dacoits and their capture have been
referred to above.
The punitive police posts at Lagdana in Ahmedabad and
Samarkha in Kaira have been withdrawn, and the force of 6 offi
cers and 29 men quartered in the villages of Gungali, Sinaj and
Vithalpur in Ahmedabad was reduced to 2 officers and 5 men.
In July 1881 a punitive post of 2 officers and 11 men was im
posed on 25 villages of the Shahapur Taluka in Thana on account
of the villagers being in the habit of harbouring dacoits.
A punitive post was established at Devlali in Ahmednagar in
consequence of the suspicious conduct of the inhabitants of the
village in connection with serious crimes which had occurred in
the district. A brutal murder of 5 persons by some of the people
of Jadhowwadi in Satara made it necessary for a post to be sta
tioned there. 2 posts in N&sik, 1 in Poona and 4 in Satara were
withdrawn.
The total strength of the police was 18,134 men. In proportion
a far greater number of men were stationed in the Northern
Division, where there is 1 policeman to every 3 square miles;
in the Central Division it is 1 to every 6| square miles, and
in the Southern Division it is only 1 to every 7 square miles.
In Sind, where there is so much desert, the proportion is 1 to
every 11 square miles, but as the population is sparse the propor
tion to the population is 1 policeman to 577 inhabitants. In
the Northern Division it is 1 to 818, in the Central Division 1
to 945, and in the Southern Division 1 to 1,117 inhabitants.
Besides the regular police duties of the force which occupy
11,934 men in the districts, the police furnish guards over jails
752 men, over treasuries and lock-ups 2,451 men, and 2,513 men
are engaged on town and cantonment police duties. The Com
missioner, N. D., observes with reference to the village police,
a hereditary body quite distinct from the regular police, that
“ the question of the village police is most urgently calling for
attention. The actual importance of the village police cannot
for one moment be overlooked. Without the aid of the village
police not a single offence could be traced out. The village
police are the real backbone of the detective police. They know
all that is going on, and know every one in the villages. The
village police are, however, now so wretchedly paid and so entirely
'without organisation that it is lamentable to think how the
country is losing the services of this most valuable body of men. 3 ’
In Sind, village police do not exist, and the work of detection
and repression of crime falls upon the regular police, who, not
Chap. III.
PROTECTION,
Professional
Crime.
Punitive
Posts,
Police
Strength.
Police
Guards.
Village
Police.