60th Anniversary of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel National Police Academy, Hyderabad

Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel National Police Academy, spread over 275 acres on a scenic landscape stands tall on the Hyderabad-Bangalore highway. The Academy is not only a premier police training institution of the country but one of the best police training institutions of the world.

Until the country became independent, the officers of Indian Police (IP) received probationary training in their respective provinces. After independence Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, the first Union Minister envisioned the need for a central training facility for imparting common induction training to all those joining the Indian Police Service. Thus came to be established, the Central Police Training College (CPTC) at Mount Abu (Rajasthan) on September 15, 1948. The institution was rechristened as National Police Academy in 1967, and finally named after its founder, as Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel National Police Academy (SVPNPA), in 1974.

The dream that was conceptualized by the Iron Man of India in the year 1948 took root in the quaint hills of Mount Abu and shifted to a dry and rocky terrain of Hyderabad in the year 1975.

Watered with the hard work, sweat and toil of its alumni and every member of the NPA family, the Academy has today blossomed into an oasis of greenery and an institution of excellence in training.

With the combined efforts of the visionary leadership the Academy along with their respective teams, the Central Police Training Centre at Abu took shape and slowly but surely acquired the character of an institution. On transfer to Hyderabad in the year 1975, it started functioning in its effective fullness giving due and desired attention, not only to achieving highest in training but also to improving the ambience and the infrastructure of the Academy premises.

The campus, as it stands today, is the result of the tireless efforts of each member of the NPA family over the years that have cheerfully performed their Shramdan, and contributed in ways big and small, to make this Academy better than the Best. The permanent abode of the Indian Police Service aspirants is majestically astride the Hyderabad-Bangalore highway. It is today located in India’s fastest growing city, Hyderabad. The strength of this institution lies in its ability to change and adapt itself to the ever changing times. The Academy has always stood up to meet the challenges imposed by the dynamic and complex world of modern criminal trends. This was and is considered necessary for an officer to not only adapt himself to the professional changes to keep abreast with the latest but the outdoor training also has been mounted very scientifically so as to earn maximum gains and minimize injuries.

The Academy deems it is primary responsibility to prepare leaders for the Indian Police, who will lead the force with courage, uprightness, dedication and a strong sense of service to the people.

The Academy remains in constant endeavor to equip the officer trainees with knowledge and skill needed for professional and efficient policing, and inculcate in them, such values as would help them serve the people better. In particular, the Academy tries to inculcate integrity of the highest order, sensitivity to aspirations of the people in a fast-changing social and economic milieu, respect for human dignity, and liberal perspective of law and justice.

The Academy conducts over 30 need-based thematic and refresher courses every year, for senior officers of different ranks. Prominent amongst the courses conducted are programmes on National Security, Day-to-Day Policing and Internal Security, Cyber Crimes, Economic Crimes and Organised Crime etc.

The Academy is also a centre for research studies on police subjects and has expanded its resource base through tie-ups with similar institutions within and outside the country.

The Academy has state-of-the-art infrastructural facilities for training. The library of the Academy has a rich collection of nearly 1,00,000 books besides a valuable stock of training films, video cassettes and CD-ROMs on police and related subjects like sociology, law, criminology, forensic science and medicine, management, etc.

The Academy also has a well-equipped forensic science laboratory besides a computer forensic lab, having facility for acquisition and analysis of ambient data from all types of storage media. The repository of passports, etc. the Academy has is a photometric language laboratory for teaching regional languages to the trainees. A Gymnasium, an Olympic size Swimming Pool, a Firing Range and a Riding ground are among other valuable infrastructural assets of the Academy.

With a view to enabling all police training institutions to draw upon each other’s resources and specializations, the Academy has established a computerised network (POTINET) connecting all Police Training Colleges and Academies of the various States and Central Police Organisations with the NPA as its hub. This network acts as an effective means of communication between various police training institutions in the country, enabling them to share the course designs, teaching material, training calendars and all other information relating to training through online communication with one another.

More than 4000 leaders of the Indian Police have passed out of the portals of this great institution. The responsibility that the vision of Sardar Patel places on the shoulder of every young IPS officer who walks out of the Academy starts getting imprinted within him as a sense of pride and mission. At the gates of the Academy stands poised as a mother smiling armed with a sense of pride and happiness of having sent brave and brilliant sons into the service of India, who in the times to come will serve the nation and the Academy proud. The Academy’s alumni are today leading all the state police and paramilitary forces of the country with élan.

The Alma Mater of the Indian Police Service has grown and prospered. In the year 1948, in a message sent to the CPTC, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel said of the CPTC “It has to build itself and build others. It has to create amongst its alumni that love and reverence for their alma mater which are at once the pride and heritage of an educational institution.” He ended his message with a blessing that every new class leaving with the academy saying “May it secure all this from the devotion and attention of its inmates.”

The spirit of the Sardar’s Message reverberates through every corridor and lane of the Academy. These words have ever since been a source of inspiration for the Academy to constantly strive for excellence.

In recognition of its outstanding services, the Academy was awarded the President’s Colours on its 40th Anniversary on September 15, 1988.