Sunday, April 23, 2006

Dakshina Kannada Police blog and rights of the 'accused'


Check out the Los Angeles Fire Department's blog [Via Chugs]. In addition to posts on recent accidents (such as this one, with video footage and some technical details about how they handled them), there are posts on the city's budget (with some emphasis on what's in it for the Fire Department), some facts about bubonic plague (following reports that an LA woman contracted it), and a celebrity event "in support of our quest to complete a permanent memorial to our fallen colleagues."

After seeing it, I decided to check back on the blog of our very own Dakshina Kannada Police (DKPD). This blog now features a link to the 2006 report on crime in that district (a short summary is available in this post). It has a post (in Kannada) on the Flag Day celebrations, and quite a few posts on crimes solved by the DK police force.

The DKPD blog also has a post seeking inputs from people on a proposal to regulate live bands (actually, dance bars). The deadline is over, but take a look at the proposal to get a feel for how our bureaucracy works.

So, there are quite a few similarities. The quality of writing is the main difference: the DK police blog has the feel of a press release, while LAFD blog strives to maintain a professional-yet-conversational tone. Another difference is that comments are enabled in the latter, but disabled in the DK police blog. Also, LAFD blog's posts are available in multiple languages, while DKPD blog's are in either English or Kannada. Finally, LAFD blog appears to be a collective effort, while the DKPD seems to be the personal effort of Mr. Dayananda, the Superintendent of Police of the DK district.

On the DK police blog, it was jarring to see pictures of people who have been arrested for various crimes (and no, I won't provide links). Now, don't get me wrong. It's one thing to post pictures of convicted criminals (like here), but it's an entirely different thing to post pictures of people against whom the police has only allegations or a suspicion. Don't you think the latter is a terrible thing to do? What if the police have got the wrong man (and almost all the pictures are of men)? Don't the 'accused' have any rights?

1 Comments:

  1. Anonymous said...

    > Don't the 'accused' have any rights?

    Can you write to Mr. Dayanand and point it out? he may be sympathetic. Perhaps you've already done that.

    I stumbled on your space from "how the other half lives" and enjoy reading what you have here.

    coincidence worth noting: my word verification: ohrongd! lol