The Bombay City Police: A Historical Sketch, 1672-1916Edwardes, S. M. (Stephen Meredyth)
History
The Bombay City Police: A Historical Sketch, 1672-1916
Edwardes, S. M. (Stephen Meredyth)
Crime -- India -- Mumbai; Police -- India -- Mumbai
As regards regular police-work, Mr. Vincent made an attempt in 1894 to
improve the regulation of traffic on public thoroughfares. This was
necessitated by the steady increase of the number of public and private
conveyances, the former having risen from 5392 in 1884 to 8301 in 1894,
and the latter at the same dates from 2674 to 5416. On the other hand
the width of the roads had, with here and there occasional setbacks,
remained constant for twenty years, and the majority of the streets
were totally inadequate for the increased volume of daily traffic. The
Commissioner’s efforts to control traffic more effectively did result
in a decrease of street-accidents, but they failed at the same time to
meet with “the approval of the entire native community”. Therein lies one
of the chief obstacles to efficient traffic-regulation in Bombay. The
ordinary Indian constable, though more able and alert than he used to
be, is still a poor performer as a regulator of traffic. He is not likely
to improve, so long as Indians persist in using the roads in the manner
of their forefathers in rural towns and villages, and so long as he is
doubtful of the support of the magistracy in cases where he prosecutes
foot-passengers and cab-drivers for neglect of his orders and of the
rule of the road. Apart also from the possibility of the constable not
being supported by the bench, as he usually is in England, the great
delays which are liable to occur in the hearing of these trivial cases,
through the procrastination of pleaders for the defence, act as a direct
discouragement to prosecutions. A real and permanent improvement in
traffic conditions cannot be secured, until the Indian public develops “a
traffic conscience” and insists upon the relinquishment of ancient and
haphazard methods of progression inherited from past centuries.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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