The first phase of the Police Officers’ Problem Solving Program was successfully concluded yesterday under a concept of Public Defense Minister Rear Admiral Sarath Weerasekera.
Accordingly, the 22nd of every month has been declared as the day for listening to the problems of the police officers.
This concept of the Hon. Minister Sarath Weerasekera is a special task and if successful, it will be the first modern and last step in creating a people friendly police. To achieve this, long-term and short-term plans must be implemented. To this end, we propose to seek advice from experienced social and community development scholars as well as sociologists and their services directly to the Minister of Police. For that, the social development reports should be obtained from them, and the social reports should include the problems faced by the civilians due to the misconduct or mistakes of the police officers and the mental states that caused the police officers to cause such problems. By recognizing the breakdown of the Police Department in those social records and implementing short-term and long-term solutions to them, the dignity of the police, which is being destroyed day by day, will be regained little by little. Otherwise, if they are suffering because of the mistakes of the police officers and by relieving themselves of their wrongdoings and giving relief to themselves, the public as well as other police officers will suffer. Therefore, this should be done “like eating milk with a razor blade”
The path to regaining respect for the police cannot be taken from the higher or lower ranks of the Police Department. Finding out who the police officers with such a vision are from the police department is like looking for a black fox. It will not be possible to find an OIC, a senior police officer who does not take bribes, does not perform his duties properly, does not commit frauds and corruption, does not prosecute the right people, has no connections with various criminals, does not pursue promotions after politicians. Therefore, this task will be successful only with the help of experienced staff and non-staff independent service. It will have to look at all the age groups in the community, past and present family backgrounds, their behaviors according to their place of birth, the various problems they faced in socializing and so on. However, it is regrettable that there are not even ten scholars in Sri Lanka on social and community development.
We also propose to give the police officers a deadline to resolve their issues and, if they have not been resolved, to meet the Minister of Police directly on Police Day or to resolve the issues. If the Minister of Police acts on such proper instructions, he will receive the title of ‘Modern Father’ of the Police Department. Otherwise, if this is done only for the sake of publicity with the intention of returning to Parliament, the publicity will soon be lost and the people will be displeased. Therefore, by implementing our proposals as well as the proposals of other progressives, this work will be achieved and public welfare will be achieved.
