Objective[edit]

The First Police Commission, appointed on 17 August 1865, contained detailed guidelines for the
desired system of police in India and defined the police as a governmental department to maintain
order, enforce the law, and to prevent and detect crime. The Indian Police Service is not a force itself
but a service providing leaders and commanders to staff the state police and all-India Central Armed
Police Forces. Its members are the senior officers of the police. With the passage of time Indian
Police Service's objectives were updated and redefined, the current roles and functions of an Indian
Police Service Officer are as follows:[15]

 To fulfil duties based on border responsibilities, in the areas of maintenance of public peace and
order, crime prevention, investigation, and detection, collection of
intelligence, VIP security, counter-terrorism, border policing, railway policing, tackling smuggling,
drug trafficking, economic offences, corruption in public life, disaster management, enforcement
of socio-economic legislation, bio-diversity and protection of environmental laws etc.
 Leading and commanding the Indian Intelligence Agencies like Research and Analysis
Wing (R&AW), Intelligence Bureau (IB), Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), Criminal
Investigation Department (CID) etc., Indian Federal Law Enforcement Agencies, Civil and Armed
Police Forces in all the states and union territories.
 Leading and commanding the Central Armed Police Forces (CAPF) from IG rank which include
the Central Police Organisations (CPO) such as Border Security Force (BSF), Central Reserve
Police Force (CRPF), Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP), National Security
Guard (NSG), Central Industrial Security Force (CISF), Vigilance Organisations and Indian
Federal Law Enforcement Agencies.
 To lead and command the force with courage, uprightness, dedication and a strong sense
of service to the people.
 Endeavor to inculcate in the police forces under their command such values and norms as
would help them serve the people better.
 Inculcate integrity of the highest order, sensitivity to aspirations of people in a fast-changing
social and economic milieu, respect for human rights, broad liberal perspective of law
and justice and high standard of professionalism.

Selection[edit]

The peaked cap worn by all Indian Police Service officers as part of their uniform code.

IPS officers are recruited from Civil Services Examination. They are also promoted from State Police
Services and DANIPS. However, at present, recruitment from Limited Competitive Examination has
been put on hold.[13]

Training[edit]
The training of IPS officer recruits is conducted at Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel National Police
Academy in Hyderabad. The authorised cadre strength of Indian Police Service is 4920. (3270 Direct
Recruitment Posts and 1650 Promotional Posts).[16] The Civil List of IPS officers is an updated
(annual) list maintained by the Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India that lists the posting
details of all IPS officers in India. This Civil List can be accessed from the MHA website. It allows
searching for an IPS officer on the basis of his/her name, Batch or Cadre.[17]

State Cadres[edit]
Cadre Allocation Policy[edit]
The Union Government announced a new cadre allocation policy for the All India Services in August
2017, touting it as a policy to ensure national integration of the bureaucracy as officers and ensure
All-India character of the services. Under the new policy, the existing 26 cadres have been divided
into five zones in the new policy by the Department of Personnel and Training of Government of
India.[18][19][20][21][22][23][24]
Under the new policy, a candidate has to first give his/her choice in the descending order of
preference from amongst the various Zones.[24] Subsequently, the candidate has to indicate one
preference of cadre from each preferred zone.[24] The candidate indicates his second cadre
preference for every preferred zone subsequently. The process continues till a preference for all the
cadres is indicated by the candidate.[24] The preference for the zones/cadres remains in the same
order and no change is permitted.[24]
Officers continue to work in the cadre they are allotted or are deputed to the Government of India.[25]

Zones under the new Cadre Allocation Policy

Zone Cadres

AGMUT (Arunachal Pradesh-Goa-Mizoram and Union Territories), Jammu and

Zone-
Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand and Odisha.
II

Zone-
Gujarat, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh.
III

Zone-
West Bengal, Sikkim, Assam-Meghalaya, Manipur, Tripura and Nagaland.
IV

Zone-
Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Kerala.
V
Old Cadre Allocation Policies[edit]
Till 2008 there was no system of preference of state cadre by the candidates; the candidates, if not
placed in the insider vacancy of their home states, were allotted to different states in alphabetical
order of the roster, beginning with the letters A, H, M, T for that particular year. For example, if in a
particular year the roster begins from 'A', which means the first candidate on the roster will go to the
Andhra Pradesh state cadre of IPS, the next one to Bihar, and subsequently to Chhattisgarh, Gujarat
and so on in alphabetical order.[26] The next year the roster starts from 'H', for either Haryana or
Himachal Pradesh (if it has started from Haryana on the previous occasion when it all started from
'H', then this time it would start from Himachal Pradesh). This highly intricate system, in vogue since
the mid-1980s, had ensured that officers from different states are placed all over India.
The system of permanent State cadres has also resulted in wide disparities in the kind of
professional exposure for officers, when we compare officers in small and big and also developed
and backward states.[26] Changes of state cadre is permitted on grounds of marriage to an All India
Service officer of another state cadre or under other exceptional circumstances. The officer may go
to their home state cadre on deputation for a limited period, after which one has to invariably return
to the cadre allotted to him or her.[27]
From 2008 to 2017 IPS officers were allotted to State cadres at the beginning of their service. There
was one cadre for each Indian state, except for two joint cadres: Assam–Meghalaya and Arunachal
Pradesh–Goa–Mizoram–Union Territories (AGMUT).[27] The "insider-outsider ratio" (ratio of officers
who were posted in their home states) is maintained as 1:2, with one-third of the direct recruits as
'insiders' from the same state.[28] The rest were posted as outsiders according to the 'roster' in states
other than their home states,[28] as per their preference.