Dr R K Raghavan is a a former Director of the Central Bureau of Investigation, New Delhi. An Indian Police Officer of the 1963 batch from Tamil Nadu, he retired after 38 years of service in April 2001.

• Coping With Crime: A Citizen's Guide
A war against crime can only be won only at a cost. The police can at best be driven to produce ideas and disseminate them to the public. The major effort will have to come from the community, who will have to organise themselves more intensively, says Dr R K Raghavan.

• But where's the ghost?
'I don't see one. The decision to extend the the services of a Cabinet secretary invests the high office with certain stability. We have otherwise had the ludicrous spectacle of some officers holding the job for less than six months, thus making a mockery of the administrative process.'

• Unfulfilled hopes
'The all-India services have been a mixed bag. But it is difficult to agree that they have succeeded greatly in pushing up standards of administrative professionalism or ethics'.

• Whither Indian Police?
'The police station and the police constable are too diseased to call for the skills of an eminent specialist. Be honest and tell me whether you will ever venture into a police station on your own to seek any service! As for me, I will not!'.