Public Perceptions of Police in Mizoram: A Study of Demographic and Contextual Variables

This paper is an attitudinal study that examines how demographic factors such as ethnicity, age, gender, education, occupation, and income and such contextual variables as police contact, corruption, fear of crime, police fairness, determine public perception of police in Mizoram that is one of the states of North East India. It is the first attempt of its kind that studies public attitude towards the police in Mizoram. The findings of this study show that the police are admired and revered by the people for their role in the state. The general public have positive attitude toward the police if their requests are met by the police. Those people who exhibit unequivocal appreciative view about the police are ready to help and cooperate with the police. This positive perception of the police has important implications for community policing in the state. Our research results concur with the findings of certain researchers that in small states of India like Manipur, Mizoram, Nagaland, Meghalaya, Sikkim and Tripura, people are generally happy with police performance. But police still need to adopt better and more people friendly approach so as to make the police-public relations more conducive to the successful implementation of community policing.