Police stop and search in India: Mumbai nakabandi

Abstract

The Indian police have wide discretionary powers of stop and search. One peculiar and regular manifestation of this power is ‘nakabandi’ (meaning blockade), where the police set up road blocks on important road junctions and conduct stop and search operations. This paper is the first attempt of its kind to describe the way the Mumbai police exercise these powers in the form of nakabandi and what is achieved from these operations. The conditions under which the police conduct stop and search operations in Mumbai and their effectiveness are discussed. While police nakabandi do not ostensibly raise allegations of racial discrimination and controversy like police stop and search operations in the West, nevertheless several questions regarding their purpose and efficacy arise, especially in relation to the amount of time and resources devoted to these operations.

Keywords:

• Mumbai police
• nakabandi
• stop and search
• India

Acknowledgements

Grateful thanks to the anonymous police officers who participated; Prof. Richard Wortley for his support; Aiden Sidebottom, Prof. Ben Bowling and peer reviewers for their insightful comments on earlier drafts.

Notes

1. Mumbai has a vehicle population of approximately 1,938,000 according to the Mumbai Traffic Police Website.

2. The modus operandi in chain-snatching crimes usually involves two motorcycle borne riders speeding towards a woman walking alone in a desolate area, yanking off her neck chain and speeding away. Alternatively, the perpetrator approaches the victim on foot, snatches her chain and escapes on a waiting motorcycle ridden by an accomplice (Times of India 2010).

3. A Station General Diary is a running record of major incidents, important events and police station activities, maintained in every Indian police station.

4. For example, the UF-250 forms that the New York Police Department (NYPD) are obliged to fill out (Gelman et al. 2007), and Police and Criminal Evidence (PACE) regulations for police forces in England and Wales.

5. Number of operations (42,041), multiplied by the number of men on duty in each operation (13), multiplied by the time allotted for each operation (2 hours).