Watch on investigators

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Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) has launched the Crime Intelligence and Research Unit formed with the help of the Detective Branch of police last month to monitor the performance of case investigators under DMP.

The objective behind the monitoring is to find out whether or not investigations are carried out properly and to find out if people are harassed during the process and if any corruption is involved to hush the investigation process.

This could result in disciplinary action against any case investigators found to be neglecting their duties

According to information just released, the unit has contacted 50 complainants since its inception. Thirty-eight per cent of these complainants have expressed satisfaction with the investigation, 30 per cent said they are fairly satisfied, 22 per cent expressed dissatisfaction while 10 per cent refrained from comments.

DMP Commissioner Naim Ahmed told The Daily Star that they have taken the initiative to change the police’s performance and their authoritative culture into a service oriented culture.

He said the standard of police’s service largely depends on how well they deal with investigation of cases, so the authorities are have brought all investigations under supervision to ensure that there is no neglect in this.

Officer-in-Charge (OC) of police stations concerned, assistant commissioners, additional deputy commissioners and deputy commissioners (DCs) concerned are now supervising the performance of all investigation officers (IOs).

The new unit contacts the complainants of cases and gathers information about whether the investigations were carried out properly, and sincerely.

With the new system in place, not only are the IOs under supervision but the supervising officers of the cases will also be held responsible for any flaws in investigation, top DMP officials said.

The DMP has also directed DCs to check on cases pending investigation once every week.

The commissioner said that to put a stop to unnecessary harassment of people, DMP has issued a directive that an IO must visit the crime scene within 24 hours of an incident. The IO must also file the primary case diary within 48 hours of the incident.

A top DMP official seeking anonymity said that this has been done to prevent the IO of a case from amending the facts of the primary case diary later on.

The Discipline Department of the DMP has also been asked to be more active about any negligence during investigations or any unauthorised arrests. The department has taken punitive actions against around 400 policemen since last month.

The DMP commissioner said that they have also introduced a mechanism to evaluate the performance of police stations and its case investigation officers.

“Through this daily evaluation sheet, I can keep an eye on how many crime incidents take place each day, and even the development of investigations into each of those,” the commissioner said.

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