The government has no control on the trade of Police and Rapid Action Battalion (Rab) uniforms and other accessories, paving way for unscrupulous individuals to pose as law enforcers and cheat people thereby.

This situation has given rise to many cases of robbery, mugging and cheating by criminals in disguise of law enforcers, mostly because of the negligence of the police and those in charge.

There are three markets in Dhaka where uniforms and other accessories of police and Rab are sold. The vendors of the markets ought to be first enlisted in police department's traders list.

"We grant the vendors permission when we are sure that our requirements can be met, and then enlist them in our list of traders," said an official of the Police Headquarters. He could not, however, explain what other requirements were necessary to get permission.

He admitted that there were no strict regulations binding the vendors to any contract.

Polwell is the biggest among the three markets housing around 35 shops.

Although most businessmen at Polwell said they were very cautious in selling these goods to the right persons, inquiries reveal there is no stringent method to check if the buyer belonged to law enforcing authority or not.

"We know most of our customers and if we have any doubts we check their ID cards," said Amar Shaha of Jonaki police store at Polwell super market. "Yet we have to be cautious, because attitude of defence personnel plays a major part when we deal with them," he added.

"We know by experience if the buyer is a police officer or not. An officer identifies accessories by the proper terms meant for them, whereas an ordinary person cannot," said Abbas Ali of Bangladesh police store of the same market.

The other two markets are at Kochukhet and Rajarbagh. Police personnel are provided two sets of uniforms a year from the department that they buy them from these markets.

"Field officers find two sets of uniforms a year insufficient to look smart, so we have to resort to buying extra sets from outside," said a traffic sergeant near the Polwell market.

High officials of the police department admitted that they do not have total control over these markets.

A problem pointed out by another official was that all members of the police department do not have official ID cards. He also said that there was no strict rule that civilians cannot use any law enforcers' uniforms.

"If someone were in police or other security service's official dress we can arrest them in cases of fraud, but the public is not prohibited in using them," he added.

Another problem the police authority is facing at the moment is the similarity of uniforms worn by private security service personnel. There are a few private security agencies using almost same or uniforms similar to the Bangladesh police.

A committee formed by home ministry is working to formulate specific rules regarding the dress of law enforcers and private security services.