| Summary: | Broken System documents ongoing violations by police in India and the impunity that fuels abuse. Drawing on interviews with more than 80 police officers and observations at police stations in three states and the capital, Delhi, the report also examines the ways in which everyday police working conditions contribute to and even encourage human rights violations. The Indian police are overstretched and outmatched, battling India's most pressing problems, including armed militancy, organized crime, and religious and caste violence, without sufficient trained personnel and equipment. The public, a vital source of cooperation and information for police, often avoids contact with the police out of fear. Political figures intervene in police operations to protect influential criminals, bribing officers and destroying morale. Police often commit abuses with impunity, a problem fueled by the lack of independent investigations into complaints of police abuse. When abysmal working conditions are paired with impunity for abuse, the results are all too predictable. To get around systemic problems many officers take 'short-cuts.' Officers cut their caseloads by refusing to register crime complaints. At other times, they use illegal detention, torture and ill-treatment to punish criminals against whom they lack the time or inclination to build cases, or to elicit confessions, even ones they know are false. Broken System concludes with detailed recommendations for reform, including steps Indian authorities should take to end impunity and overhaul the everyday police policies and practices that facilitate ongoing human rights violations.
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