Hard on the heels of scandals of two OICs of police stations charged over child molestation and rape, IGP Jayantha Wickremaratne yesterday said that an all round effort was needed to revive public confidence in the police.

"There is no point in denying the fact that people have lost confidence in law enforcement due to negligence on our part," he told The Sunday Island.

A case in point was the loss of public confidence is the much publicized police hotline 119, he said. He had sought the advice and expertise of academia to identify shortcomings in the force and ways and means of tackling the problem.

Confirming that one of the suspect OICs was still at large, the IGP said the force wants to encourage policemen to act properly and do the right thing.

The public won’t call 119 due to inordinate delays in reaction by officers, he said.

Responding to our queries, he said that he discussed this issue at length at Friday’s book launch by Police Spokesperson SSP Ranjith Gunasekera at the Criminal Records Division CRD).

Several university staff attended the function on the IGP’ invitation and heard Wickremeratne calling for a revamping of the service.

Asked why Chief Justice Sarath. N. Silva who was scheduled to address the gathering had failed to turn up, the IGP said the CJ was not well. Otherwise, he would have come, he said.

The police have come under heavy fire over the recent handing of several cases including the ones involving Labour Minister Mervyn Silva and delay in completing major bribery investigations.

The Chief Justice on September 8 issued notices on the IGP, Treasury Secretary P. B. Jayasundera, Chairman of Bribery Commission Justice Ameer Ismail, DIG CID Sisira Mendis and Secretary to the President Lalith Weeratunga to appear before court on September 29.

The Chief Justice said that the order would be made in respect of a motion filed on September 2 by Vasudeva Nanayakkara that action hadn’t been taken on the Supreme Court judgment on the privatization of the Lanka Marine Services (LMS).

Setting the date for the order, the CJ said that those who were found guilty of the LMS deal were still holding office and this was a violation of the Constitution.