Swordsmen to do cops’ work?

Tuesday 4th August, 2020

The Attorney General’s Department has caused quite a stir; it says it can seek the assistance of the armed forces to execute arrest warrants in case the police fail to do so. Deputy Solicitor General Dileepa Peiris made a statement to that effect, at a media briefing, on Friday, as we reported yesterday. The consternation of the state prosecutor and his staff is understandable. The police, more often than not, run around like headless chickens when arrest warrants are issued while suspects are absconding. But they promptly arrest ordinary people who happen to be on the wrong side of the law. Tainted Negombo Prison Superintendent Anuruddha Sampayo, whose arrest the Negombo Magistrate’s Court ordered was at large for several days before surrendering to the police. If the CID cannot arrest an ordinary suspect like a prison officer until he surrenders, how can we expect it to deal with terrorists? No wonder Zahran and his fellow terrorists prepared and executed their plans with ease.

The military has already been tasked with performing police duties. The traffic police have manifestly failed to bring order out of chaos on roads. What they practise is traffic control and not traffic management, and they believe in the imposition of fines on errant motorists rather than making timely interventions to prevent transgressions that cause accidents. Their incompetence and the attendant mayhem prompted President Gotabaya Rajapaksa to order that the Military Police be deployed to help the police make roads less chaotic. Now, there is the presence of both traffic police and military police on roads, but congestion is far from over.

There may be situations where the police need the assistance of the armed forces to make arrests, given the power of the netherworld of crime and narcotics. The police had their work cut out in the aftermath of the Easter Sunday bombings, last year, and the security forces moved in to raid terrorist hideouts and neutralise threats effectively. But it defies understanding why the military should be deployed when the police fail to carry out their duties and functions under normal circumstances. The CID should be ashamed of its failure to trace the absconding prison officer.

It is not seldom that politicians shield offenders, preventing the police from arresting them. In March, the Colombo Fort Chief Magistrate issued warrants for the arrest of 10 suspects wanted in connection with the Treasury bond scams. The police arrested only one of them and others went into hiding. It was obvious that the CID did not want to go the whole hog to trace the rest due to political pressure. Subsequently, the suspects surrendered to court. Not even an entire army division would have been able to arrest the suspects with political connections.

The Colombo Municipal Council is full of shirkers paid with public funds. They do not clean drains or maintain public spaces. The military is deployed to do their work while they are paid for doing nothing. Municipal workers are responsible for keeping cities and towns clean, but workers have to be hired to remove election posters, cutouts, etc., and the public has to foot the bill.

The keenness of the AG’s Department to have arrest warrants executed expeditiously is to be appreciated, but the solution to the problem of dereliction of duty on the part of the police is not to deploy the military to do constabulary duties. What are the police there for if their work is to be outsourced? The solution, we believe, is to take punitive action against the police officers who fail to carry out court orders. The AG’s Department can report such errant officers to the National Police Commission, or courts themselves can take action against them. It is unfair to keep flogging the willing horse––the security forces.