Interview with Sub-inspector Kirran

While in India, I was given a unique opportunity to visit and interview the Sub-Inspector of a police department. Sub-Inspectors in India are the second in command of a police branch. We spoke about different topics, including the work-life balance of a police officer, leading crimes, and the way the system works. A topic of interest that arose during the interview with Sub-Inspector Kirran was the pandemic and its effect on the police force. Aside from that issue, police worldwide are still faced with criticism from the public eye. There were many limitations on what questions to ask, so the interview was introductory, and most of the topics discussed were still open for further questioning.

During the interview, Kirran was hesitant to answer some questions due to how strict the police force is with information that can be given to the public. The way I worked around that was to make some jokes and lighten the mood from an interview to an everyday conversation. Once the mood was lightened, Kirran elaborated more on his questions and started to speak more evident than at the beginning of the interview. Another thing I had to do was change my questions as the interview progressed upon realizing that my questions might be challenging to answer, given the instructions I was given before starting the interview. As I spoke more with Kirran, it became evident that police worldwide, regardless of the situation, always have to put their lives at risk, and the public may make it difficult for them to work.

It raised the question of how many resources the police were given at the start of the pandemic. Besides the resources, there may have been restrictions on how they carry on their duty. I would also like to expand further on the policies they had to work with during the pandemic and how it affected crime in India. Further questions on the entry and eligibility to join the police academy and compare differences with United States eligibility requirements. Kirran gave us a brief explanation of how the police system works in terms of ranking, but further elaboration is needed to make the comparison with the US police system. On comparing the two systems, I would have loved to hear Sub-Inspector Kirran's thoughts on foreign gun policies and the legalization of marijuana in the US. Since most of the questions were left with basic answers, I would like to investigate deeper to find concrete answers.

The following steps would be to take out a journalist permit. With that, I would have more freedom with the questions we can ask. There was a question that was left out of the video. That question was about the difference between men officers and women and how they are perceived by the public eye in terms of the amount of authority they have. No answer was given to me for that question. The answer received was more about how women are officers, and they occupy roughly thirty percent of the police force. In Mysore, there is a police station run by women. It is interesting to see how the public perceives them and other police stations. Seeing how a unique station like that functions would be nice to look at further.

Another part of the video that was not shown was that domestic violence is the most common crime. In a society as unique as India, it is interesting to see how they handle domestic violence cases, as most are crimes the husband commits against their wife. So what measures are being taken to lower these cases? Could it be linked to alcohol? Kirran mentioned how easily obtainable alcohol is. Alcohol abuse is more common than drug abuse. Drug usage is not as high because it is hard to find drugs. Workload is another variable of interest. The video mentions that police officers in India can go days without seeing their families. The experience was fun and unique, considering how hard it is to enter a police station in India.

A lot was learned, but there are still questions left unanswered that can be studied further with the proper resources and an adequate amount of preparation. Either way, I am grateful for the opportunity given to me. Although brief, I hope to come back and do a proper interview that can help with some unanswered questions.