Department of
Criminology and Criminal Justice

Police Station is the first point of contact for any person seeking grievance redressal from Criminal Justice System of India. Inaccessibility of police services to large section of public defeats the purpose of building a democratic society. It is well understood that procedural and behavioural hindrances in the system make people think twice before approaching a Police Station. Most choose not to report the incident at all or take help of a politician or a village/caste-elder to get access to the Police Station. It is well known that there are serious problems in Indian police that hinder the registration of crime. To address this problem, Telangana State Police Department established “RECEPTION” in all Police Stations as a separate functional vertical with the objective of making police more accessible to the people. This research study seeks to evaluate functioning of this Reception system in Kamareddy District, in terms of improvement in accessibility and satisfaction of citizens with police services. The study compares process of petition enquiry before and after establishment of this system in the district. The study also evaluates satisfaction of the petitioners, employee satisfaction with the new process and general opinion of citizens on policing services apart from exploring its impact on police-public relations.