Bhubaneswar, Aug. 26: The state government has decided to fix the tenure of key police functionaries to a minimum of two years in an attempt to free the cops from unnecessary political interference and make them professionally equipped.

This decision covers cops posted as the in-charge of police stations, superintendents of police, deputy commissioners of police and inspectors general of police in charge of a police range, commissioner of police and the director general of police (DGP).

The Odisha Police Bill-2013, which was introduced in the Assembly today, mentioned these features. However, an officer can be removed from his post by the state government before the expiry of his tenure on grounds of proven inefficiency, negligence in duty, misconduct and lack of integrity.

The Bill will empower the government to constitute a State Security Commission headed by the chief minister. Besides government functionaries, two non-political persons of proven integrity and competence from the fields of academia, law, public administration, media and social service would be nominated by the state government.

The committee will have at least one woman member. The panel will aid and advise the state government in discharging its functions and responsibilities. It will also frame broad policy guidelines and identify performance indicators to evaluate the functioning of the state police.

The state government will establish a “police complaints authority” at the state level to look into complaints of grave misconduct against police officers of and above the rank of superintendent of police. It will also look into serious complaints such as death, grievous hurt, rape or molestation of women in police custody and moral turpitude.

A state-level committee will be constituted with the chief secretary as its chairman and home secretary and DGP as members to consider suitability and tenure of different officers of and above the rank of superintendent of police up to the rank of additional director general of police.

The Bill facilitates constitution of the Police Establishment Board with the director general of police as its chairperson. It will decide transfers and postings of officers in the rank of additional superintendent of police and deputy superintendent of police.

The state government will constitute a State Intelligence Organisation for collection, collation, analysis and dissemination of intelligence to look into the activities of various organisations.

To expedite investigation, the state will constitute a criminal investigation organisation for investigating inter-state, inter-district crimes and other special offences. It will be headed by an officer not below the rank of a superintendent of police.

The state government will also create a crime investigation unit at all police stations situated in urban areas. Officers posted at such units will normally have a minimum tenure of three years and a maximum of five years, after which they will be put on law and order duty and other assignments.

It will have specialised units for investigation of cyber crime, organised crime, homicides and economic offences.

Every police officer will be required to behave with the public, particularly senior citizens and women, with due courtesy and decorum.