Last month I saw a curious news article in the media about a magistrate in the District Court in Lae throwing out a rape case because of “badly written” charge that police presented in court.

It was an incest case involving a 52-year-old man sexually penetrating his female relative.

The magistrate expressed disappointment that the police did not write the charge in “simple English” and it was “badly written” and difficult for anyone to read and understand it.

 The magistrate dismissed the case and ordered the refund of the K500 bail to the accused. This is unacceptable. It is bad administration of justice on the part of the members of the Royal Papua New Guinean Constabulary (RPNGC) in particular.

 Cases before the courts should not be allowed to be dismissed on technical grounds and forgotten.

I hope the complainant and her relatives refile the case with a different police officer assigned to write the charge in appropriate English. This is imperative for the proper administration of justice so the case can come to a legal close.

It is also necessary for this to happen because we all know that all forms of abuse against women of our country are too common nowadays. Police officers, therefore, should not take individual cases like this one lightly.

It is becoming common in Papua New Guinea that cases are dismissed or won and lost on technical grounds. Many a times, this is because of under par performance by members of the RPNGC.

Police play very important roles in keep peace and order and in the administration of justice in our country. In the latter, they arrest persons accused of crimes, charge them and take the defendants to court.

It is the reports the police file after their investigations and charges they lay against the defendants that are used in court for a case to be determined by the magistrates and judges.

 The lawful administration of justice would not take place without this important work of the police in arresting suspects, charging them and compiling reports that form the charges laid against accused persons.

 When the very important police function of writing charges in cases before them is not done properly then it defeats the entire process of justice.

 The implications of a case like the one mentioned here being dismissed on technical grounds, are many. But I would like to highlight two. One is the miscarriage of justice that the complainant has to live with and in the serious cases like rape, the untold ramifications that it might have on a victim. The other is the backlash such a decision would create in terms of a breakdown in peace and harmony between groups of

people. At the end of the day, this is Melanesian PNG, where people do stand-up and respond against in injustice in their communities through the traditional methods of payback attacks and even fights.

We all are aware of the many challenges the RPNGC faces as a government department that is expected to perform at the optimum level at all times. The RPNGC has ongoing issues with manpower and resources. The population of the country has been growing from a low of about two million at independence in 1975 and 45 years later, it has over 8 million people.

The pressure that a growing population and rapidly changing society places on the national police service can be telling. Police officers, like other public servants, also face problems with lack of accommodation and other employment conditions.

 In addition, the ongoing national leadership problems in terms of corruption and mismanagement also affects the nation’s ability to fund its vital public services like the police service provided by the RPNGC.

 These challenges can have a bearing on the performance of our police personnel.

 In busy metropolitan melting pots like Lae city, police work can be stretched at times. This can undermine the quality of service that the police personnel provide to the public. In such situations, it begs for prioritization of work by the leadership and management of the police. It also begs the question of how much we as citizens are able to do our part to make our households, neighbourhoods and communities free and safe from all forms of lawless activities so there would be no need to call in the police for assistance in the first place.

 In conclusion, we all understand and know the challenges faced by the RPNGC and we empathize with them. However, the problems the RPNGC as a government department faces, must not be an excuse for some of its members to allow cases to fail at the courts because of shoddy police report writing or not providing evidence in court on time. For the sake of our country’s development and prosperity, authorities must curtail the dismissal of cases on technical grounds by enabling police to do their work properly a required by law and the citizens.

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