Former Commissioner of Police Mohamed Hameed has stressed that Assistant Commissioner of Police Ahmed Shifan linking the spiraling of crimes to the actions of the previous administration, is irresponsible.

The ex-CP took to social media platform ‘X’ on Thursday after ACP Shifan posted a response to an article by a local media outlet on Wednesday regarding the spiraling of crimes across the island nation.

Speaking to RaajjeMV, Shifan who also serves as Spokesperson at the Maldives Police Service (MPS), revealed that it was clear that efforts were made to reduce crime over the past 15 years, without much appreciating the results.

Shifan stressed that the state of the drug treatment system is worryingly poor.

Shifan noted that a large population of 434 convicts were released by the Maldives Correctional Service 10 months earlier.

Highlighting that the lack of return on investment over time has led to a serious crisis, Shifan stressed that the unplanned projects of infrastructure investments in the law enforcement sector in the past has made it so much more difficult to resolve the issue at hand.

Further, the ACP noted that the government had planned to construct 50 police stations to ensure the safety of the public, however, failed to proceed with the project. He added that the detention space to accommodate about 450 people was reduced to build the new prison and no new facility could be established either.

With this, Shifan stressed that it has become a difficult task to resolve these issues.

He added that efforts have been planned to be made at the official capacity of the police institution, to resolve the situation.

Sharing his thoughts on the matter, ex-CP Hameed stressed that it was “unbecoming” of a spokesperson representing the police institution, to make such an irresponsible comment.

Highlighting that Shifan’s comments erode the “already” wavering public trust and confidence in the institution’s impartiality and professionalism, Hameed described the manipulation of tools within the system by both current and past governments to release accused individuals or re-offenders on judicial remand for major crimes or to grant parole and clemency to serving offenders to be problematic.

Stressing that this has become a norm in the island nation, Hameed stated that it has been happening regardless of which political party is in power.

He described it to be a “flawed” mindset to believe that offenders must always stay behind bars.

Emphasizing that parole and clemency are part of the legal process, Hameed noted that it has to be implemented responsibly.

However, the former police commissioner stated that this is a challenging task.

In his post, Hameed highlighted that the perspective should be to hold authorities accountable no matter the obstacles and find ways to overcome them and not to keep blaming others.

Expressing disappointment in seeing individual senior officers or those tasked with being the voice of an institution act with impunity, Hameed stressed that it is dangerous and paves the way for further damage to an institution that exists with the sole purpose of protecting the people.

Further, Hameed stated that similar acts are being observed from those in high-ranking government positions.

With this, he stated that perhaps the bigger concern right now is the lack of will both within institutions that serve the public and at the very top to hold such persons who overreach to account.

Cases of break-ins, theft, robbery, drug smuggling and peddling have been on the rise at an alarming rate of recent.