A turn for the better

Thursday, 28 January 2016 00:01 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

The order to arrest the top police suspects in the case of the Embilipitiya man who was allegedly pushed to death, is a positive turn for both the rule of law and the people entrusted to enforce it.

For too long Sri Lankans have lived in fear of avoiding the police and the law because it is untrustworthy or just too much trouble. If police who overstep their boundaries and use their powers to hinder the public rather than protecting it, then they have to be held accountable, for otherwise they lose the right to be empowered.

As tensions increase, Police have been accused time and again for failing to protect vulnerable groups, be they minorities or non-governmental organisations. Public perception of the Police, which was never that great to start with, is at an all-time low. The Police is seen as the most corrupt institution in Sri Lanka and public safety continues to be swept under the carpet by officials. Recently they had to be informed that beating students till they bleed is definitely not “minimum force”.

Even though many of these incidents took place under the former Government there is still need to implement reforms within the Police force, especially in interacting with the public, maintaining professionalism and desisting from custodial torture. The latter has been actively taken up by some factions of the National Government and is among the pledges made before the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC).

Police conduct has been a subject of contentious debate and great concern in almost every part of the world including Sri Lanka. Numerous deaths of suspects in the custody of the Police as well as brutal assaults on suspects and offenders have been documented by the media and civil society institutions leading to a public outcry to clean up Police conduct.

Politeness, Obedience, Loyalty, Intelligence, Courtesy and Efficiency are the traits that are believed to define a Policeman – traits that have slowly eroded from sections of the Police force over time, taking along with it the faith, trust and respect placed by the public in its office.

Although it is easy to put the blame squarely on the few policemen who abuse their powers with such impunity, the public cannot ignore the system in which they operate – the toxic environment that has been created for them in which they have the authority to operate with an extreme and callous disregard for those they are entrusted to protect.

Stronger actions against excessive force and the periodic psychological assessments of Police officers are courses of action long overdue. The allegations of internal cover ups and falsified testimony in cases of custodial deaths must also be addressed as restoring the integrity of the police is as much an internal struggle as it is an external one. It is heartening that a start might be made at long last.

As an overburdened and undermanned legal system delays the process of justice, having given rise to an alternate system in which the Police act as the judge, jury and executioner, the noble force must remember that they are called upon to enforce the law while obeying it.