Breeding impunity in the Police Department

“Don’t be afraid to use the weapon in your hand for the right thing and we will stand by you. Eliminating criminals from the country is not a sin,” were the words of advice from Public Security Minister Tiran Alles to the Police.

His pearls of wisdom were imparted to a team of 100 police personnel who underwent special training at the Katukurunda STF camp and are now entrusted with cracking down on criminal activity in the Western and Southern Provinces.

While what constitutes an act as sin or not is relative, the Minister’s words to the policemen to not be “afraid to use weapons” and guarantee that he would “stand by them” are dangerous and intimidating. They breed impunity and will only embolden many of the already trigger-happy police personnel out on the field.

Since the new IGP Deshabandu Tennakoon took over in February, he, along with Minister Alles, launched the “yukthiya” operation with much fanfare to crackdown on “undesirables” in society. The operation was to crackdown on organised crime and the underworld but after much hype, on camera action and lots of publicity, the program has done little to eliminate crime in the country. Instead, what we have seen are extrajudicial killings of alleged criminals, deaths of innocents who allegedly failed to obey police orders and harassment of people who the police consider “undesirables”.

Earlier this week, two men were killed after police opened fire on a three-wheeler that allegedly defied an order to stop at Moragahahena. The Police explanation was that the shots had been fired at police by the occupants in the vehicle, prompting officers to return fire.

The Police quickly identified the two dead men as those with extensive criminal records and said they had found the gun used by the men to shoot at the police nearby. 

By now, most Sri Lankans, including school children will tell you that this story from the police rule book is so hackneyed that even if the circumstances of these killings are true, people are unwilling to buy the police story. The reason is that the Police Department, for years, has failed to properly investigate such killings and convince the public that such killings are justified.

It goes without saying that criminals in this country are hand in glove with politicians and by extension with many serving in the law enforcement agencies. Organised crime and the underworld sprung up as an offshoot of the criminalisation of politics in this country, and mainly after 1977 and has continued to become stronger thanks to patronage of powerful politicians and their cronies.

Public cynicism at the well-publicised police operations to crackdown on organised crimes/illicit drugs is understandable given that such operations have been going on for years and this has made little dent in criminal activity in the country nor stopped the proliferation of illicit drugs in the country. In fact, newer types of drugs are being introduced by dealers and these are now reaching the hands of younger segments of the population including school children.

Police operation against criminals/drugs is welcome if there is a genuine effort to crackdown on these activities but most police programs seem to be public relations oriented rather than a serious effort to combat these evils. The “Duterte” type operations aren’t a good model to follow for any country including Sri Lanka because it only leads to violation of human rights and abuse of power.

Organised crimes and drugs are social problems that cannot be solved by the barrel of the gun alone. Police operations have to go hand in hand with awareness programs, rehabilitation, etc. if there is to be reduction in crimes and drug related activities.

What the Sri Lanka police need is not more guns and motorcycles, but a change in attitude and more commitment to abide by the law. Telling police personnel to kill along with guarantees that their political masters will “stand by them” will increase the number of law enforcement officers willing to break the law.