CHENNAI: Police generally has only three roles — maintaining law and order, prevention and detection of crimes and road traffic regulation. The Tamil Nadu police’s policy notes and citizen charter also broadly speaks only of these three. But the state police of late has acquired a new role as the biggest advertisement space provider in the urban areas.
Want to know how? Just step out on any road in Tamil Nadu’s cities and the most common sight will be display of the brand names of private firms on the properties of the police. It could be the barricades, sign boards or traffic booths. Perhaps the most disturbing advertising spaces are the name boards of the police stations —several stations have names and logos of private shops operating in the locality on their name boards itself. After the stringent restrictions by the judiciary on hoardings, the properties of the police have now become the prime target for private firms ranging from salons to jewellery shops. There are no rules or legal authority that authorise the police in this sphere of activity. When Express spoke to many of the lower rung police officers, they said all the names printed on the police properties are that of “sponsors” of those items.
Beyond the obvious questions of legality, members of the legal fraternity say such a practice of police officers obtaining favours from private firms, especially involving a monetary aspect, would put them in positions of conflict of interests. It threatens to damage the very image of the police as the neutral law enforcers of the society. Advocate K Elangovan, a lawyer specialising in criminal law, says, “Obviously only the rich can sponsor such items to the police. What happens when that sponsor later is found on the wrong side of law? Let us say he is involved in a road accident. Won’t the police officer have a soft-spot for him? If I am going to a police station with a complaint against such a sponsor, what would be the equation between him and me?”
Retired Madras High Court judge K Chandru says it is illegal for any government authority, including the police, to enter into agreements with private companies and they all must be only routed through the State government. “If at all the government wants to get such sponsors, there can be a regulatory authority which will handle this and fix norms for it. It can’t simply be left to the police,” says Chandru. He also agrees that beyond the issue of procedural violations, the loss of image of the police as a neutral authority is worrying. “In an office discharging the sovereign power of the State, the space cannot be shared for a private firm. Just like we can’t have logo of a local dealer in the name board of a court,” he says.
How the system works?
When Express spoke to several police officers in the ranks of inspectors, it became apparent that a police officer in charge of a jurisdiction has a free hand in getting the ads from any of the sponsors. Every police officer seemed to have his or her own contacts and they link the private firms to specific manufacturers. The sponsor can decide how their brand name or logo should appear. “One barricade will cost around Rs 7,000 to Rs 10,000 depending upon the usage of materials. We usually connect the sponsors to the manufacturer. It will take two or three days and the sponsor will provide details for advertisement which will be either painted or attached (on the barricade),” a police officer told Express.
Some police officers said the space taken by the name and logo of the private firm can only be 30 per cent of the space. But a few others said they don’t mind even if the entire space is taken up by the advertisement, which is evident from the barricades found on the roads of Chennai. “Barricades could be the best form of advertisement. At least 30 per cent of the population in the city will surely look at the ads on the barricades,” said a police officer when Express asked why private companies sponsor such items. Another police officer said the barricades or the sign boards would be removed only when they get rusty and hence the sponsor can be assured of display for at least a few years, a bonanza for any advertiser. Many of them were eager to know if there are any such sponsors available for their jurisdiction.
The ad hoc set up is evident from the distribution of sign boards. For example, the Prakasam Street at Nungambakkam has five sign boards at a single junction. This stretch, which is hardly 150 meters long, has a total of 13 sign boards on roadsides. All of them have similar messages, such as importance of helmets or avoiding use of cellphones when driving, and a small logo of the Chennai Traffic Police. But what is more appealing to the eyes are the advertisements of the shops in the locality that take up 50 per cent of the space in the sign boards and are more attractively designed.
Why should police put up so many sign boards on traffic awareness on a road that passes in a residential locality? A scan through streets of Trust Puram also shows that at least 13 such sign boards are kept, besides a few odd barricades, with ads of a popular store on the road. At a few road junctions where the Chennai Corporation has already built traffic booths, more than one temporary traffic booth is placed, of course with advertisement about a private firm fully wrapped around it. A few traffic police officers said the traffic booths built by the corporation are not comfortable during summers and hence, recently, they have procured such newly-designed ones from private companies. The barricades in some places are put up in the middle of the road even when there are raised medians. In commercial areas, the biggest retailer’s name is invariably on the barricades. But some shops manage to get barricades with their names at least in front of their shops.
Question of legality
The police are violating at least two laws in this process. The most obvious is the Emblems And Names (Prevention Of Improper Use) Act, 1950. The legislation was recently in limelight when Reliance’s Jio used Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s photos for its promotion. But a little known aspect of the law is the bar on use of names of any government agency, even suggestively, for commercial purposes (see box).
The sponsored sign boards, barricades and the traffic booths not only have the name of the concerned city police or police stations, but also the logos which imitate the national emblem. For example, the Chennai Traffic Police’s logo is an imitation of the national emblem. The display of name of the police along with the names of private firms would go against these provisions of the Act. Worst is the case when the ads are displayed on the name boards of the police stations itself.
Besides this, the display of advertisement in public places in cities are the domains of those city corporations or the district collectors. For instance, in Chennai, the governing statute is the Chennai City Corporation’s Licensing of Hoardings and Levy and Collection of Advertisements Tax Rules, 2003. Under this rule, the city corporation commissioner is the authority to grant permissions for advertisements in public places. The rules also prescribe norms and a licensing fee to be paid to the civic body.
The Madras High Court had also ruled that having advertisements on the barricades on highways is a distraction for the drivers and can lead to accidents. But what is evident is in guise of sponsoring barricades and sign boards, the private companies are getting space for display of their advertisements in public places. The police are clearly usurping the role of the city corporation and the corporation officials are not bothered either. Interestingly, the sign boards on roads put up by the Chennai city corporation have no ads.
‘Streamlining is in process’
When queried about the issue, A Arun, Additional Commissioner of Police (Traffic) said the city police is going to streamline the entire process. “There is no proper regulation now since these are now mostly done at the level of police stations. We are now planning to streamline it,” Arun told Express. He said the plan is to uniformly paint all the barricades in red and blue and only one-third of the space will be allocated to the sponsor. “This will also be painted and covered after six months’ time,” he said.
When asked about possible conflict of interest when police officers deal with such sponsors, he said, “Every police officer will be mandated to inform his senior whenever a sponsor approaches.” He added that any member of the public feeling that the police officers in the stations are biased because the other party had sponsored items for the police, should approach senior officers.
Another top traffic police officer rubbished the idea that police officers would be biased towards the sponsors. “We have even booked cases against companies that have sponsored things to us. Law is equal to all,” he said. When Express posed the same question to an officer in a police station in Chennai, he answered it a bit differently, “We may have to register the case and arrest the person also. But we can guide him on things like how to quickly get the bail as a friend.”
‘No bias’
When asked about possible conflict of interest when police officers deal with such sponsors, A Arun, Additional Commissioner of Police (Traffic) said, “Every police officer will be mandated to inform his senior whenever a sponsor approaches.” He added that any member of the public feeling that the police officers in the stations are biased because the other party had sponsored items for the police, should approach senior officers. Another top traffic police officer too rubbished the idea that police officers would be biased towards the sponsors. “Law is equal to all,” he said
Law aims to avoid conflict of interests
The Emblems And Names (Prevention Of Improper Use) Act, 1950 bars use of “any name which may suggest or be calculated to suggest the patronage of the Government of India or the Government of a State; or any local authority or any corporation or body constituted by the Government” for purposes of “any trade, business, calling or profession.” The aim of the law is not to permit any of the commercial companies exploit the popularity of the government and to avoid conflict of interests for the government agencies or officials
‘Corporation does not interfere’
In Chennai, the rule governing advertisements is the Chennai City Corporation’s Licensing of Hoardings and Levy and Collection of Advertisements Tax Rules, 2003, but when asked about sponsored sign boards, barricades and the traffic booths of the police, an official of the Chennai corporation said, “The police department gets sponsors for placing signs and they can install it according to their convenience and requirements. The corporation does not interfere. The same goes for the barricades.”