Beitbridge cops redeployed for failing lie detector tests

THE Zimbabwe Republic Police has redeployed more than 100 of the estimated 500 officers, who were recently transferred to Beitbridge Border Post, after they allegedly failed lie detector tests.

Source: Beitbridge cops redeployed for failing lie detector tests – NewsDay Zimbabwe October 18, 2016

BY OWN CORRESPONDENT

According to a leaked police radio signal, RDO JC 422/16DD07/10/16 from “ComPol”, a code for Police Commissioner-General Augustine Chihuri, the officers had failed lie detector tests.

“They were transferred soon after failing the polygraph tests,” a source said.

Those transferred scored below 50%, with reports that some scored as low as 15%.

The officers were not returned to their original stations, but moved to new locations.

The officers, barely a month in the border town, were part of a new team that had been deployed following the mass transfer of the entire police establishment at Beitbridge in July this year.

The transfers were linked to the police officers’ failure to properly handle the violent demonstrations that rocked the town in July, as residents and cross-border traders protested against the introduction of Statutory Instrument 64/2016, which prohibits importation of certain consumer products.

Meanwhile, scores of policemen are still housed at their charge office quarters because the police residential camp is still occupied by families of officers transferred in July.

“I cannot afford to pay rent here and back where I was and where my family is, so I have to stay at the (police) station,” one of the officers said.

Police spokesperson Senior Assistant Commissioner Charity Charamba could not be reached for comment.