Maldives

They are the same personnel operating out of the same premises. Only the uniforms and paint on vehicles have changed. The newly formed Maldives Police Service does not have the power of arrest outside Male which implies that it doesn't hold the authority in other atolls of Maldives. The metamorphosis of the personnel in khaki into the personnel in blue is an adventure without a legal framework.

The history of civilian police goes back a long time where an office called Fithunaayaka (later called Fennaa) existed. The Fithunaayaka was the Chief Constable. Until the 1940's civilian police constables were called Bandeyri-beykalun. A uniformed police unit called Fuluhun, under the Ministry of the Interior, was first established in the late 1940s but was later transferred within the jurisdiction of the Department of Public Safety and merged with the National Security Service.

The Maldives Police Service, which was previously administered by the Ministry of Defence and National Security as a paramilitary unit has now become a civil authority and is administered by the Ministry of Home Affairs. If a police personnel arrests a person in an atoll without a written warrant from the Ministry of Atolls Development or a court of law, the officer will be acting ultra vires. The officer will have to be suspended from all duties and the offence will be investigated by a competent complaints authority. The officer's actions should also be subject to judicial review by the High Court.

The 'modern' day messenger

India

Fallen trees might break telephone lines. Power failures might wreck computers. But in eastern India, one thing still gets through: carrier pigeons. The police department in the state of Orissa uses these specifically trained birds to send messages between remote outposts.

There are 27 police pigeon cages or lofts around Orissa. It's the job of 37 officers to feed and train the birds. The training starts when the birds are about six weeks old. Depending on weather conditions, they can fly as fast as 55 miles per hour.

Messages are written on a scrap of paper, which is rolled up and inserted into a tiny plastic capsule that's then attached to a pigeon's leg. "Report immediately to headquarters about the incident at Gurudijhati…in which two persons were killed in violence. Send a constable with all details," read a message sent during the summer of 2004 from the Central Breeding and Headquarter loft in the city of Cuttack.

The Orissa police pigeon courier service dates back to 1946, the year before India's independence from the British. In 1999, the pigeons were instrumental in ferrying information across the cities after a cyclone tore into the region, killing thousands of people and snapping communication links with coastal areas. " We recognise the fact that modern day communication will someday bring down the curtain on pigeon post. But for now, the pigeons will keep on flying," says Constable Ashok Kumar Naik, one of the pigeon trainers.

The New Zealand Police Pipe Band perfoming

Source: New Zealand Police

Know your justice system
India

Twenty Do's of Law in India

• A First Information Report (FIR) must be registered as soon as information about a cognisable3 offence is received.
• It is essential before starting an investigation that facts mentioned in the FIR disclose all the elements that go to make up a cognisable offence.
• Only one FIR should be registered in respect of a particular incident. If any additional information is received in respect of the incident it should be recorded under Section 161 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 and mentioned in the charge sheet. If the investigating officer comes across any evidence after the inquiry report has been sent to the magistrate, s/he can carry out further investigation ("normally with the leave/permission of the court and send supplementary reports to the magistrate