The Department of Police is to look into the possibility of withdrawing Police Special Task Force (STF) officers from their duties in expressways in order to deploy them in more productive endeavours.

Speaking to The Daily Morning yesterday (7), sources within the Department said that measures will be taken to withdraw the STF cops from expressways once the Department receives the approval of the relevant authorities in this regard.

According to sources, this decision has been in the making for many years since the Department has identified the importance of obtaining the maximum service from the STF cops who are deployed in these places. Sources also said that those officers can be deployed in many other important tasks such as the prevention of organised crime activities and drug related issues as almost all the officers attached to this division (STF) were given a special training on the aforementioned areas.

However, the sources further said that the safety of the people who use expressways and other properties will be ensured by the law enforcement authorities, adding that either the Civil Security Department (CSD) officers or Police officers will be deployed to replace the STF officers.

Since the functions of expressways started a decade ago, the STF officers are deployed in expressways for the safety of people and other properties. According to reports, STF officers have rescued hundreds of lives from different incidents like accidents, fires, robberies, etc. In this backdrop, the Road Development Authority has repeatedly raised its concerns about the particular proposal, claiming that this move will have a negative impact on the security in expressways.