[5] The lack of qualified criminal investigators hampers the criminal investigations in Sri Lanka, C.R. de Silva, the Solicitor General of Sri Lanka was quoted as saying in an interview with the BBC Sinhala Service Sandeshaya on Sunday, 5 September 2004. What the Solicitor General said on this occasion is what all spokesmen for government agencies, including the police service, have been saying so often and for so long. That the police department lacks sufficient qualified criminal investigators is a matter on which there is complete consensus by officials and political leaders as well as the public.
The more important question therefore is what is subsequently to be done? This is a question however, that no one seems to ask. There is thus only the statement of a problem without the corresponding attempt to analyze it or look for solutions.
The simple answer to the question is that there should be an increase of qualified criminal investigators. There is no other viable solution.
The question would then arise as to how to increase the number of qualified investigators. Either better ones among the qualified should be given additional training or more qualified ones must be recruited. Perhaps both ideas might be considered. It stands to reason that if there are good enough persons who qualify for higher training such persons should be offered this training. If there are not enough personnel then people can be recruited from outside and given a higher degree of training.
The next question would be that who has the duty to make that decision? It is the government that has to make the decision to take the necessary action to obtain more qualified investigators. Until the government makes a decision on this matter and makes adequate resources available, nothing but the constant lamentation that Sri Lanka does not have a sufficient number of qualified criminal investigators will take place. Every time there is a report of crime increase and every time there are reports of torture used at police stations there will be a repetition of the phrase ‘we do not have a sufficient number of qualified investigators.’ The only way out is for the government to make a decision to solve the problem and to allocate resources for this purpose.
It can be said that Sri Lanka does not have a sufficient number of qualified criminal investigators only because the government has not decided to have them. Consequently, the increase of crime and the widespread use of torture are both products of the government’s inaction. In fact there is no escape from this logic; it is the government’s inaction that is responsible for the increase of crime and the use of torture in police stations. It is the inaction of the government that deprives the Sri Lankan police force the qualified criminal investigators it needs to carry out its basic obligations to society.
The question then is who can move the government from this state of inaction? To begin with, it is public opinion. If the media and civil society organizations demand more qualified criminal investigators, the government cannot maintain such inaction for long. It is here that public opinion has failed. Public opinion in Sri Lanka has not gone beyond decrying the increase of crime and the failure of the police to properly investigate crimes. It has not made the necessary connection between the failure of the government to take the necessary decision to improve the quality of criminal investigators in the country and the increase of crime and police torture.
If public opinion lays the responsibility for the increase of crime and the endemic use of torture at police stations to where it belongs, that is to say, at the very feet of the government, soon some decisions may take place to move from mere lamentation and rhetoric to finding some real solutions affecting everyone in the country.
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[5] This was issued as a statement of the AHRC – AS-33-2004 on September 6, 2004
