Action taken on four police officers for alleged assault on civilian

Action has been taken on four officers of the Maldives Police Service (MPS) in connection to a case involving assault on a member of the public.

Three officers have been dismissed and one was demoted, in connection to the assault case.

The reveal was made by the Commissioner of Police, Mohamed Hameed via Twitter on Monday night.

The police commissioner’s Tweet reads that the officers were dismissed and demoted respectively by the Disciplinary Board, for allegedly assaulting a member of public on August 5, 2019.

This action demonstrates the authority’s posture for reform, said Hameed, who added that police reform is doable and can be approached with civility and is in everyone’s interest.

CP Hameed went on to revealed that 34% of the police workforce hold academic qualifications above A’ levels and about 220 officers and staff hold postgraduate degrees.

It is universally understood that a wide range of policing skills are best learned “on the job”, said Hameed.

Further, he highlighted that a higher academic qualification is secondary.

This comes at a time some Members of Parliament have criticized the institution for failing to bring reform.

The general public long described actions of the police force to be against the legal mandate and the police force is known to have used excessive force at times.