Bengaluru: In a bid to reduce political influence in police postings and introduce a more structured transfer system, the state home department has issued revised guidelines governing the posting and transfer of deputy superintendents of police (DySPs) and police inspectors (PIs).The order, accessed by TOI, prescribes fixed tenures, mandatory cooling-off periods, rotational postings and eligibility criteria for executive assignments. It seeks to prevent officers from remaining in influential field positions for prolonged periods and to ensure wider opportunities for officers across the cadre.Now, officers promoted as DySPs or PIs will be required to serve a compulsory two-year tenure in non-executive or desk assignments immediately before they become eligible for executive field postings. The move is aimed at discouraging attempts to secure operational postings immediately after promotion and at providing administrative experience before officers take charge of field responsibilities.The revised policy also places limits on the duration of executive postings in major police commissionerates, including Bengaluru, Mysuru, Mangaluru, Hubballi-Dharwad, Belagavi and Kalaburagi. Officers can now serve a cumulative maximum of five years in executive assignments within these commissionerates. These include law and order, traffic, crime branch, cybercrime, women’s police stations and railway police units.After meeting the five-year limit, officers will have to spend five years in postings outside the commissionerates before they can return to executive assignments in city police units. However, the order clarifies that non-executive assignments within commissionerates and postings outside commissionerates completed before reaching the five-year executive limit will not count towards the mandatory cooling-off period.The department has also introduced disqualification criteria for executive field postings. Officers facing major departmental inquiries, Lokayukta or anti-corruption investigations, criminal investigations or trials, or those against whom the Police Establishment Board has recorded adverse findings, will not be eligible for executive assignments.To prevent officers from occupying successive field postings, the order mandates alternating executive and non-executive tenures. DySPs completing two years in executive roles must serve at least two years in non-executive assignments before returning to the field. For PIs, a two-year executive tenure must be followed by at least one year in a non-executive posting.The order states that officers who fail to complete a mandatory four-week refresher training programme within two years of promotion will not be considered for executive postings.Specialised units such as cybercrime, women’s police stations and railway subdivisions have also been brought within the definition of executive postings, preventing officers from using such assignments to remain continuously in operational roles.—–Kataria: Creating level-playing fieldAdditional chief secretary (home) Rajender Kumar Kataria told TOI the revised framework is intended to improve transparency, merit-based postings and accountability within the police force.“…By establishing non-negotiable cooling-off periods and eliminating grey areas in posting tenures, we are creating a level-playing field for officers while ensuring that key operational posts are held by qualified, untainted personnel,” Kataria said.
