Home » Working Women » Careers - Civil Services, Armed Forces » The Indian Police Service (IPS) This service has the difficult and unenviable task of maintaining public safety and security. A job that not only demands mental alertness and physical fitness but puts all of one's abilities to the harshest of tests while dealing with the ever increasing crime graph. However, the role of the IPS has changed over the years. Now, IPS is not solely concerned with the maintenance of law and order in the traditional sense. Its ambit now includes listening to public grievances regarding neglect or delay of police action, formulating strategies for various programmes associated with public welfare, and taking preventive steps to ensure that elements disrupting social peace are dealt with swiftly and ruthlessly.

To fulfil these functions, the service has been divided into many functional departments: Crime Branch, Criminal Investigation Department or CID, Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) and Traffic Bureau. A number of central policing agencies are also headed by the IPS including the Intelligence Bureau, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), Cabinet Secretariat Security, Border Security Force (BSF) and the Central Reserve Police force (CRPF).