Source: Police patrols long overdue – DailyNews Live
STAFF WRITER 21 May 2018
HARARE – The Zimbabwe Republic Police (ZRP) should be applauded for
re-launching patrol units countrywide as this will help curb crime.
Commissioner-General Godwin Matanga was spot-on when he recently bemoaned
the absence of police officers on the streets, ordering them to resume
patrols.
Matanga said it was worrisome that streets were devoid of police patrols
save for security personnel from private companies.
Police officers should always be visible in the community as their
visibility has the capacity to reduce crime.
In recent years, muggings and thefts have increased, hence the call for
24-hour police patrols.
Communities, on the other hand, should take advantage of the patrols and
assist police in fighting crime in their neighbourhoods.
The absence of police patrols has seen a surge in housebreakings with
families losing household goods while robbers have also targeted
businesses.
Recent reports of female teachers being raped at schools while others are
robbed growth points due to the absence of police in communities.
The success of police patrols will, in the long run, boost the public’s
image of police services as crime would be dealt with timeously.
These patrol units should also be deployed in congested towns and cities
where thieves and criminals operating in syndicates take advantage of
human traffic, stealing from unsuspecting people.
They must also cover notorious bus termini where travellers are harassed
by touts and in the process lose valuables in broad daylight.
In the cities and towns, hopefully the police patrols will manage to bring
order to traffic as drivers seem to break road rules; entering traffic
light-controlled intersections and driving along wrong lanes.
Notorious kombi and mushika-shika drivers are now in the habit of parking
on the roads, hence making roads inaccessible to other traffic.
In recent months, it took ages for traffic police to attend to accidents
because they were absent from the streets. The delay in attending to road
accidents creates jams as vehicles involved block traffic for long
periods.
Apart from police street patrols, the ZRP’s traffic department must also
conduct highway patrols to minimise lawlessness on our main roads.
Bringing back police patrols should not be licence for officers to harass
innocent people while it is hoped gaps leading to corruption resurfacing
will not be opened up.
COMMENTS
Patrols are only effective if those officers doing it are fully committed in serving the public at large not the other way round,ie, to incite indiscipline by mixing with the criminals in public drinking at bottle stores.One officer-in-charge of a police station in Queens Park West justified the terrible noise being made by a bottle store in the area at late hours of the night because he seemed to be completely ignorant of the Bulawayo By-Laws on noise levels which were enacted in 1973 and amended in 1975.He showed me total ignorance and foolishness when he said these people have rights to make noise,but the council authorities disagreed with his interpretation when I spoke to them for further clarification on the existing By-laws. I was told that no public place or individual is allowed at anytime of the day to have music so loud as to interfere with his neighbours without prior agreement with those neighbours.Therefore,no bottle store or any organization can ignore the presence of the people around their premises and make high levels of noise pretending that their licences operate their businesses give them that stupid permission to be destructive to others.Therefore,any police officer who condones this activity is guilty of serious public corruption and neglect of duty.The new Police Commissioner needs our support to get rid of these corrupt officers.Ironically,this same police station managed daily to man a roadblock just after the Mgusa River Bridge on the airport road to fine motorists for trivial offices!!!
Police are welcome back if they do not behave as they have in the past.
I have a feeling that they may about to be too clever. They will use the current lawlessness to get back to their old habbits