INDIAN POLICE SERVICES

During the probation period you will undergo a year's on the job training in the office of a Superintendent of Police of a district in the State you have been allocated .On completing your two year probation, you will be confirmed as a three star Assistant Superintendent of Police (A.S.P.). You will then in all probability be posted as the Police Officer of a sub-division (SDPO) for two years till you are promoted to the Senior Scale.

As the SDPO, Superintendent of Police, Senior Superintendent of Police of a District and as Deputy Inspector General of a Range (group of districts), you will be exclusively responsible for the prevention and detection of crime. However, the law and order duties will be shared with your I.A.S. counterpart.

In cities like Delhi, Mumbai and Bangalore, the law and order duties are the exclusive responsibility of the police force. In these cities the ASP, SP, and the DIG are called Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACPO), Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP) and Commissioner of Police (CP). On being promoted to the Senior Scale you could serve as ASP of a larger district for the first two years or SP of a small district. You are likely to spend about thirteen years covering the Senior Scale, Junior Administrative Grade and Selection Grade as SP / SSP of a district, SP (Crime), SP (CID), S.P. (Home Guards), the head of some police battalion, S.P. (Traffic) and so on. Outside the districts, the most satisfying jobs are in the intelligence agencies of the Government of India specially in the Intelligence Bureau (IB) and the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI). There are many other Central agencies to which the IPS Officers may be sent on deputation at every stage of their career, except in the Junior Scale. Some of these are the Cabinet Secretariat, the Border Security Force, the Central Reserve Police Force and the Central Industrial Security Force. Unlike I.A.S. Officers who cannot permanently serve the central government, some IPS dominated central agencies absorb the IPS Officers till they retire. The senior posts in the IPS are those of the Deputy Inspector General, Inspector General, Additional D.G. and Director General. These days many states have more than one IG and DG. However, there is only one Director General of Police (DG), who heads the police force of the State.