Police reform: Do new colours mean a new mindset?

During the July Uprising, it was primarily the nation's police force that played the biggest role in trying to thwart the students and the masses from carrying out a successful movement against the Hasina regime. 

The moral corruption of the police force became glaringly evident from the very beginning of the uprising, where it employed indiscriminate shootings and arrests to instil terror into the hearts of the ordinary people. And it is this role that turned their green uniforms into a lasting symbol of trauma and hatred in the nation's collective memory.

After 5 August, following the fall of the Awami League government, police officers were not seen in public for seven days. When they returned to work, they came up with a handful of demands. One was an objection to working in uniforms stained with the blood of students and ordinary citizens.

"I'm not aware of any study that suggests a correlation between performance and uniform. Changing uniforms is unlikely to bring about behavioural changes. Historically, the police uniform has changed several times, but in the past few decades, there have been no desirable outcomes. All the issues that existed before have remained."

Muhammad Nurul Huda, former Inspector General of Police (IGP)

The interim government finally approved new uniforms for the Bangladesh Police, Rapid Action Battalion (RAB), as well as Ansar and Village Defence Party (VDP) on 20 January to help rebuild their image. The three selected colours are: iron for police, green olive for RAB, and golden wheat for Ansar.

Home Affairs Adviser Lieutenant General (retd) Md Jahangir Alam Chowdhury said in a press conference on Monday, "Everything, including the uniforms and mentality, must change. The utmost importance is being given to stopping corruption. All the uniforms and logos of the police will be changed. Many people have been heartbroken, and the police no longer want to work wearing their [previous] uniform."

But the question remains: Can merely changing the uniforms bring about a change in mindset?

"I'm not aware of any study that suggests a correlation between performance and uniform. Changing uniforms is unlikely to bring about behavioural changes," Muhammad Nurul Huda, former Inspector General of Police (IGP), told The Business Standard.

"Historically, the police uniform has changed several times, but in the past few decades, there have been no desirable outcomes. All the issues that existed before have remained," he noted.

Similarly, the black uniform of RAB carries the taint of enforced disappearances and extrajudicial killings. Evidence of their involvement has been found in the report of the interim government's inquiry commission on enforced disappearance. In effect, their black uniforms might invoke psychological terror among people, making the change necessary.

But if the RAB continues to engage in similar criminal activities again, this change will prove meaningless. Last year, RAB's Director General AKM Shahidur Rahman declared that the force will never again get involved in incidents such as enforced disappearances and extrajudicial killings and stressed systemic and moral reform.

How uniforms have evolved

The police uniform in Bangladesh has been khaki-coloured since its independence. But that colour has its roots in the British colonial era as it became the official police uniform colour back in 1847, implemented by British officer Sir Harry Lumsden.

When the Dhaka Metropolitan Police was formed in 1976, their uniform was blue shirts with khaki pants, while the remainder of the force had khaki-coloured shirts and pants.  

After independence, the biggest change in the police uniform came in 2004. In February of that year, during the four-party alliance government led by the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), the police uniform regulations were revised. The new regulation removed the boat emblem from the police uniform, along with the oar on the cap, badge and belt. 

The metropolitan police units got light olive uniforms, while district police wore dark blue. RAB's uniform was black from its beginning in 2004.

Some changes were also made in 2009. In December of that year, the regulation was revised again by the Awami League-led grand alliance government, reinstating the 1985 uniform regulations. The boat symbol replaced the Shapla emblem in the logo.

History shows that changes in uniforms often occur for political reasons, sometimes to prevent the attire from evoking association with specific events. This was exactly the case with the Bangladesh Rifles (BDR) as well. 

In the context of the 2009 revolt, the name of the BDR was changed to Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) in 2011. During this time, the force's logo and uniforms were also altered.

What changes do we need instead?

Eminent jurist Shahdeen Malik believes that image change can be necessary sometimes, however, given the other pressing issues, a uniform change does not seem viable as an immediate concern.

"Changing their uniforms will not lead to improvements in efficiency or honesty, which are far more important issues to address. The interim government must focus on these with utmost sincerity," he told The Business Standard.

Echoing him, Nurul Huda said that we should focus more on the recommendations of the Police Reform Commission. "Changing uniforms should not be our top priority. We must address the main problems and invest in basic tasks, like improving morale," he added.

"I can understand the symbolic reason behind changing the uniforms as those outfits can be traumatising for the public following the July Uprising and the way the forces were weaponised by the Hasina regime to suppress dissent and enforce her mafia rule," said investigative journalist Zulkarnain Saer Khan.

However, he noted that the change in uniform is just one part of the reconciliation process. 

"Those who were responsible for the extrajudicial killings, enforced disappearances and torture during the July uprising and before that must be brought to trial. There must also be a holistic change in the mindset of the police: They serve at the pleasure of the public, so the public should not fear them," he continued.

Instead of spending hundreds of crores on new uniforms, he suggested investing gradually in improving the training and structural development of RAB, police and Ansar personnel. 

"Establish special internal units to prevent corruption among the members of these organisations and ensure humanitarian policing, while engaging them in public service activities," he concluded.