341. Duty of police in regard to surveillance. [§ 12, Act V, 1861].
(a)Local enquiries regarding each person under surveillance should ordinarily be made at intervals of not less than one month. Such enquiries shall ordinarily be made by a Sub-Inspector, but when, owing to pressure of work or other special reason, no Sub-Inspector is available, the station officer may depute an Assistant Sub-Inspector to make the enquiry, recording his reasons in the general diary. The main object of these visits is to ascertain whether the surveille is being watched by the village chaukidar, and that his movements and the visits to his house of strangers are promptly reported at the police-station. If there is reason to believe that the village authorities are neglecting their duty in this respect, the fact shall be immediately brought to the notice of the Superintendent who shall take such action as may be necessary. The opportunity should also be taken to enquire into the general conduct of the surveille, his habits and particulars regarding his antecedents and his associates. All visits paid to the surveilles shall be entered in their history sheets.(b)It is not practicable to lay down hard-and-fast rules regarding the classification of surveilles for purposes of supervision. It is the Circle Inspector who is in the best position to decide, having regard to local conditions and the incidence of crime in his circle, the nature of the supervision to be exercised, and it is for the Circle Inspector, subject to the general control of the Superintendent, to pass orders, from time to time, as to the degree and nature of the supervision to be exercised by his station officers over each surveille in his circle jurisdiction.(c)It is important that the method of the supervision exercised should be determined with reference to the class of crime to which the surveille is addicted, and should not be allowed to become stereotyped, For instance, a dacoit or burglar should obviously be looked up at his home at night, and, if necessary, several times the same night, especially during the dark nights; but in the case of a pick-pocket it would be of greater use to have him carefully watched at hats and other places which he is known to frequent. In the case also of swindlers, druggers, utterers of counterfeit coins, forgers, etc., it is obviously useless to depend upon night visits. Such visits can serve no useful purpose and are a mere waste of time. What the station officer should aim at is to get early information of the absence of a criminal addicted to any of these crimes and to note the fact of the absence in his registers, and on the return of the criminal question him as to the cause of his absence and verify his statement without delay. No detailed instructions can be laid down, but officers are expected to use their intelligence and make the surveillance as effective as possible.(d)It may be occasionally necessary in special instances to maintain a secret watch over the movements of certain criminals, such as cannot be effectively carried out in the ordinary way. In such cases the officer-in-charge of the police-station may employ agents or informers for the purpose, but he shall in each case report his action without delay to the Superintendent, through the Circle Inspector. Charges thus incurred will be met from the Superintendent's grant for secret service.(e)Gazetted officers should occasionally personally look up persons under surveillance as opportunity offers, and this should be noted in the officer's tour diary, as well as in the history sheets of the person concerned.(f)The officer-in-charge of the police-station shall see that every member of the station staff is able to recognise every surveille at sight. The local enquiries referred to in clause (a) should as far as possible be made by the officers-in-charge or his junior Sub-Inspector, but for surveillance Assistant Sub-Inspectors must also be employed and constables singly or as part of an organized patrol party may also be deputed from time to time to ascertain whether surveilles are absent from home. Constables may also be deputed to camping grounds, sarais, ferries, and all places of public resort, to pick up information, but the constables should be given definite instructions as to the localities they are to visit and the enquiries to be made, and they should be required to return to the police-station by a given time. All such deputations must be entered in the general dairy of the police-station, and any information which may have been obtained should be recorded in the history sheets.
