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| CRIME’S
UGLY FIGURES
Think these figures for 2003 are scary, there's more to come. The Western Province was the worst hit by crime with 46.4% of all crimes being committed here while all other provinces individually had less than 10%. "Crime is a complex problem and there are no simple answers," says Senior Deputy Inspector General of Police Chandra Fernando whose Research and Development and Inspection and Review Unit was responsible for collecting and analysing the statistics in a scientific manner. When 2002 and 2003 are compared there isn't much of a difference in the crime rate, says DIG Fernando. "In 2002 a grave crime was committed every 10 minutes 45 seconds and in 2003 every nine minutes 54 seconds. There was only a slight increase in the crime rate." Crime is categorised as “grave” and “minor”. The grave crimes of murder, rape, robbery, house-breaking and theft of over five thousand rupees totalled 72.10% of all the crimes committed, the DIG said. How has the Western Province become a hotbed of crime? The reasons are many but at the same time obvious. "Twenty-eight percent of the total population of Sri Lanka lives in this province, while commercial activities are centred here," says DIG Fernando adding that the most "foreign exposure" also takes place in this area with the airport, harbour, free trade zones etc being located here. A large number of migrant workers coming into the area and most of the underworld members being based in the Western Province add to this problem. "The area has many slums and also drug and illicit liquor dens, while the large number of trishaws provide easy mobility. Meanwhile, street lighting except in the main towns is poor and criminals take advantage of the dark to carry out their nefarious activities," he explains. On the other hand the police are stretched to capacity with non-police work like controlling the security situation, engaging in VIP security, being present during strikes and also student agitations and being on special duty during the sittings of Parliament."They spend more man-hours on non-police work than on police work of crime fighting. But these should not be used as defences," says Mr. Fernando assuring that a scientific approach in combating crime is on the cards both on a proactive and reactive basis. In addition to using the traditional methods such as night patrols, ambush patrols, inter-station and day patrols, police beats during the day are being increased to enhance police visibility. Permanent roadblocks and also snap roadblocks are being set up to trap criminals. A new step is having a wide crime intelligence network by detailing two police officers in each police station to keep track of crime. Regular meetings are also planned from station level going upto range level to share the information. A pilot project has already been launched in the Uva Province. The police are also planning to issue property identification cards to people so that they can list out their valuables and in the case of jewellery will advise people to take photographs so that if it is stolen identification would be easy. While stressing that crime prevention needs a multi-disciplinary approach, the Medico-Legal Society is encouraging the collection of vital scientific evidence after a crime rather than depending solely on human evidence. This is due to the conviction rate at present being a low 4% of the total crimes reported. Police stations are also being instructed to have a scene-of-crime officer who will be trained to secure the crime scene for investigators. Now yellow and black tape is being provided to cordon off the scene. Another major thrust is to get public support in fighting crime. People will be made aware about the need to inform local bodies when the street lights are not working or be vigilant about their neighbourhoods, especially with regard to abandoned houses and areas which can very well turn into crime breeding places. "Community policing will be a good weapon in crime prevention. Citizens' committees can be educated on how to secure their neighbourhoods. Two programmes have already been launched in Eheliyagoda and Kuruwita in the Ratnapura district and we have seen a slight drop in the crime rate in Kuruwita. If successful, we will set up such committees countrywide," adds DIG Fernando. Dangerous
cocktail Lamenting the absence of entrenched knowledge due to under-researching or non-researching of crime on the part of social scientists, sociologist Dr. Sasanka Perera ventures some explanations to create a basis for discussion on the high crime rate. "Over the past half century, the policing and legal systems have proved to be ineffective and criminals feel that they can get away with quite a few things. This situation has got exacerbated in the context of terrorism because police have been handling those issues and law and order have taken a serious toll," says Dr. Perera of the Colombo University stressing that the legal system is also cumbersome and lack of technological expertise is a major issue. The example he cites is the need for technology such as DNA testing in the case of rape. "It is costly but justice is also costly and the authorities should be investing in this technology rather than building cricket grounds in Dambulla," he says. Society has also been taking a light attitude towards criminals. Many well-known politicians should not be in Parliament but in prison. But people accept crimes like killing of opponents, bribe-taking and rape from certain people with the attitude "boys will be boys". Dr. Perera says, "The public has lost its capacity to be shocked by crime. Maybe this is partly due to the war." Urging strongly for a scheme to rehabilitate not only army deserters and those who have been discharged but also fighters on all sides of the divide, he says it would be unsafe to walk on the streets of Colombo during peacetime than during the conflict. "This country needs a system to rehabilitate them. While a conflict is on you need fighters but the moment peace comes what do you do with them? It is of utmost importance not only to build the A-9 and take photographs of where the money has gone but for the government and the donors to invest money in rebuilding the minds of the young people who have been fighting the war. The results will not be tangible but it is essential," he says. This situation is a repetition of what happened in America after the Vietnam war and what happened in Europe after World War II. But those countries realized what was happening and took action but we will never learn from history. In the present scenario, for the army deserters who are trained in violence the first stop is the underworld, research has found. "These deserters can't get regular employment because they need a certificate from both the grama sevaka and the police. In a village, the grama sevaka knows who the deserters are but will not inform the authorities, neither will he issue the deserter a certificate," says Dr. Perera. There has also been a monumental failure on the part of institutionalised religions to create a better society, he says, adding that these religions don't seem to have imparted their basic principles to the masses. "Now we have an unreligious society." What
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