Fundasaun Mahein executive director (FM), Nelson Belo says he believes National Police of Timor-Leste (PNTL) detectives are ineffective in their duties.
Belo said the law authorized police and military to gather information about common crimes that may impact Timorese residents.
Belo said the failure of the PNTL to track down weapons lost during the 2006 conflict as well as the fact escaped prisoners who broke out of Becora prison last year are still at large, calls the competency of the police into question.
He said these examples showed police must improve their service systems.
He acknowledged PNTL was plagued by staffing problems but said this should not prevent the force from stepping up and performing its duties.
“There are weaknesses as the detectives lack capacity in terms of intelligence analysis of data gathered in order to be able to make a decision,” he said.
National Operational Superintendent Commander Armando Monteiro said criticism from civil society woke the police to the issues and would enable them to do a better job in the future.
“It is a new institution and our resources are limited but they are trying to do their duties to gather information, channel and report the information to prevent crimes,” Monteiro said.
He said detectives do their duties and have made good progress.
The secret nature of some work done by detectives meant many of their activities were hidden from the public, he said.
