Mozambique’s Council of Ministers has approved a draft proposal seeking to revise the current police law to enable the establishment of a crime investigation entity within the ranks of the Mozambican police (PRM).
According to government spokesperson, deputy-Justice minister, Filimão Suaze, this “is a new branch that will be introduced and should not be confused with SERNIC (National Criminal Investigation Service).”
The new crimes investigation branch will be called RIC (Criminal Offences Investigation Branch), said Suaze, adding that the draft proposal will subsequently be submitted into the Assembly of the Republic, the country’s parliament.
Comment
In principle, there are three models of policing, namely the integrated model which was extant in Mozambique since independence in 1975; the dual model currently in implementation in the country in which the police service is divided into two services: public order and security and criminal investigation; a pluralist (fragmented) model like in the United States.
Basically, it is a matter of which structural model to follow and invariably this is rooted in the political system, that is, if liberal democracy in which criminal investigation falls under the purview of the interior (home affairs) ministry; or if centralised in which criminal investigation is under police jurisdiction.
African countries tend to follow the centralised model characterised by the excessive concentration of power in the hands of the executive, chiefly the head of the state who controls the police, which is under the tutelage of the ministry of the interior and respective minister.
Regardless of their model, police services are bodies charged with resolving crime, and as such, they have their needs in terms of investigation of crimes which fall under its jurisdiction.
In the case of dual and fragmented models, there is a need for the passing of a law organising criminal investigation, which clearly states what type of crimes each service must investigate.
In the case of Mozambique, the law already stipulates that crime falls under the exclusive purview of SERNIC, meaning that the PRM cannot investigate such crimes and cannot do so without the risk of duplication of powers, capabilities and clash of activities. For example, in the case of homicide or kidnapping, the PRM can only preserve the crime scene from contamination, waiting for SERNIC to handle the case and start the investigation.
But what happens is that although the law is clear on this aspect, the PRM continues to investigate criminal cases and this raises a lot of confusion.
If in other countries it is a matter of political system informing which model to follow, in Mozambique it is a matter of survival seeing that police top brass are compromised by organized crime, thus fearing that an autonomous and strong SERNIC is likely to investigate them, a police science expert told Mozambique Insights.
“Like I’ve always explained, the idea is to strip SERNIC of its powers and raison d’être, and then blame it for every rotten thing that happens in order to have it eliminated so as to have control of investigation and continue with impunity”, said the source.
The source added that the proposal might worsen the existing fight pitting the services, not because it (proposal) is wrong “but because we cannot adapt to the laws and institutions, since we want the laws and institutions to adapt to us.”
This is so brazen that in institutional communication, it should not be police spokespersons speaking about crimes which investigation is carried out by SERNIC: if it is a kidnapping, armed robbery, or homicide, among others, it should not be the police appearing before the cameras but SERNIC. “Even here were have a war of protagonism. In the cases where a police spokesperson knows it is not their place to speak, they go together with the SERNIC spokesperson to talk about the same case,” the source said.
As for the proposed law, the structure is very heavy and gives excessive powers to the police commissioner. It would seem that this is a tailor-made proposal seeking to domesticate the institution and not the person to the institution, meaning that the latter will be weak and the former strong.
It is usual that the police should have a criminal investigation wing that only investigates the crimes envisaged in the Penal Code and carry out tactical operations. Above this, it is important that there is an internal audit entity that investigates crimes perpetrated in the exercise of police action, whether institutionally or individually. This would greatly improve police action and would greatly avoid abuses under the cover of authority.
“But what worries me is that it does not seem that it is being done for the ends envisaged in the law, but rather to issue a certificate of incompetence to SERNIC.,” said the source, adding that in the near future the Attorney-General’s Office (PGR) is likely to act as a referee since difficult days are to be expected.
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