Military Police as traffic cops
The government on Monday announced plans to deploy the Military Police on the roads and, joining forces with traffic cops, to help ease the city’s mass traffic congestion.
But is this move wise?
The task of the military police is, as the name suggests, to police the military. They are the long arm of martial law. The guardian of the Tri Forces law which exclusively governs the conduct of its personnel. It is the military wing specifically set up to check indiscipline in the forces; and no matter the highest degree of discipline currently prevailing in the Tri Forces, it is an indispensable arm of internal military law and order to ensure no breaches occur. It is the Forces’ watchdog trained to sniff out the rotten apple in its own basket.
Hardly the military corps, trained and charged with maintaining discipline in the military forces and to act as a deterrent against any lapses in the fighting ranks, to be taken from its military pond and, like a swordfish out of water, placed on the roads overnight to instill discipline into motorists and by waving hands manually to and fro to direct traffic, now is it right? Especially, when the activity they are required to perform, at the expense off their duties in the military world, is now mainly automated with colour signals?
And what’s the point of this exercise? Will a few more white sheathed arms to assist the khaki clad corps with the experience to gauge the unexpected tide of vehicular traffic that suddenly bursts like a freak flash flood in drought onto the main roads without rhyme and similarly ebbs without reason, serve to ease the congestion to ‘sardine-packed’ to such a considerable extent to justify the sacrifice the Tri Forces perforce must make in releasing men and women from its own police squad to trudge the civilian field and lend a helping hand to the Police in their civilian duties? Especially, when such unsolicited help maybe considered an insult to the dignity of the policeman’s Sam Brown uniform.
Furthermore, apparently, there is legal hitch to deploying the military police to carry out traffic duties. According to UNP MP Ajith P. Perera it is illegal to do so. And they have no power to even issue a ticket to fine an errant motorist.
Addressing a press conference at the Opposition Leader’s Office in Colombo Mr. Perera said on Tuesday: ‘The deployment of military policemen on roads is illegal. If the army is to be deployed to do the duties of the police, the government should amend the relevant laws.
"The military policemen have no power to enforce laws concerning civilians. This is going to be a problem for everyone involved. How can they enforce traffic laws? The government must also think about the professional dignity of the policemen. The army and police were trained to play different roles.”
But even if the present laws permit the deployment of the military police to be used in civilian activity in exigencies of a dire sort, shouldn’t the novel decision to use the military police as traffic cops be reviewed after a reasonable period testing its efficacy?
If only to spare the military personnel ending up at the butt end of jokes and ridicule and hate by an army of motorists even as the traffic cops have for long become their vexatious target.