SHILLONG, Feb 5 - Meghalaya today got its own police academy which, in due course of time, is expected to be developed as a research centre to study the social pattern related to crimes and the health of the State�s population.
The Meghalaya Police Academy is located at Umran, Niangbyrnai, close to the North Eastern Police Academy (NEPA) in Ri-Bhoi district. The academy will initially take in 40 trainees.
Chief Minister Conrad Sangma, who inaugurated the academy, thanked the people involved in the project since 2011. Sangma said the new police academy should also function as a research centre to identify crime patterns in the State and also assist other departments in data mining and analysis.
�This centre should also function as a research centre by bringing together the society, not necessarily in policing, but in maintaining law and order with simple standard operating procedures right from the village level,� Sangma added.
The Chief Minister said maintaining law and order has become more complicated, and requires specialised training and skill sets under the changing scenario.
Sangma added issues like cyber crimes have made a huge impact on the society and stressed the need of analysing situations with new skills and technologies.
The Chief Minister said the academy should help in looking at the present-day crimes like drug trafficking and those perpetrated against women and children from a different perspective and come up with preventive policing solutions.
Union Home Minister James Sangma stated that the first phase of the academy has been built with a total fund of Rs 50 crore provided by the 13th Finance Commission from 2013. Work for the second phase of the academy will start soon with an additional fund of Rs 92 crore from the 15th Finance Commission.
The NEPA, which was established in 1978, is mandated to provide training to recruits in the police forces from all the North Eastern State. Some State Police personnel undergo training at the NEPA, while the majority are trained at the Police Training School (PTS) here.
However, the PTS has always been found inadequate in terms of providing training and as State DGP R Chanranathan pointed out, the Meghalaya Police have at times been found wanting in terms of skills at the national level.
The DGP said the curriculum for the new academy would be framed soon by a committee, which is also set to roll out a new Meghalaya Police manual by the end of this year. Currently, Meghalaya Police follow the Assam Police manual.
