News

News

Swedish lessons on cops and robbers
By Chris Kamalendran
The under-use of modern technology to crack crimes and an overall inefficiency in the whole investigation process are the main reasons for the delay in resolving the escalating crimes in the country, a Swedish team of police experts has pointed out.

The four officers are here in Colombo to train the police force in a range of areas including crime investigation, proper handling of crime scenes, crime intelligence operations and crime management.

The team was seen in action this week alongside local police investigators at the crime scene where an underworld gang member was killed in Wellawatte.
The experts who videoed the manner in which our police officers were handling the investigation of the crime later screened it for the officers undergoing the training pointing out the mistakes in the process.

“The best way to protect the evidence at the crime scene is to cordon off the area,” Swedish consultant Jan Olsson told The Sunday Times. However, the video clippings of the Wellawatte crime scene showed people walking freely over the crime scene trying to get a closer glimpse of the body with policemen trying hard to keep the people off limits.

Mr. Olsson said this was one of the most important areas that the police had to work on. He said once the area was cordoned off to protect the evidence they should then make use of modern technology to gather the evidence.
He said that even during day time a powerful torch should be made use of to gather even the tiniest of evidence at the scene of the crime.

He said that an advanced method of obtaining finger prints through a technology of casting the fingerprint should be made use of instead of the current method of photographing the prints.

The training programme also provides training on how to collect evidence more efficiently from the scene of the crime enabling DNA tests to be carried out subsequently.

“Police should be allowed to work without any interference and there should be more interaction with the public,” he said. About 800 police officers have been selected from around the country to undergo this training.

The Swedish government has also donated laptops, digital cameras and modern equipment to collect fingerprints, power torch lights and a sketching system to improve the efficiency of the police here.

Meanwhile, head of the Swedish training team, Lars Berg, a retired Assistant Police Commissioner said he believed that the ethnic conflict had affected the efficiency of the police force.

He said the ethnic conflict should be resolved soon so that the police could concerntrate more on tackling crime in the country.

Top

Back to News