Commissioner of Police for the South Eastern Region Sekani Tembo has described community policing as critical in the fight against crime.
She was speaking Tuesday at Macheke Lodge, Luchenza, when she officially opened a six-day training for community policing groups for Mulanje.
Tembo said the coming of community policing concept was due to the shortage of police officers as compared to the growing population.
“As community policing members, you are responsible for the safety and security of your communities. But this does not mean that you should work alone because you may easily get tired so let us always work together. If there is good relationship between the two of us, it becomes easy to suppress crime,” Tembo observed.
On this note, Commissioner Tembo advised the trainees to share the knowledge from the training to everyone in their areas including children. She said telling children about crime is important as it may also help curb child abuse.
Tembo then warned the group against taking the law into their hands saying such tendency jeopardises police work.
“I warn you to avoid taking the law into your hands because this is punishable by law. Assaulting and killing suspects is retrogressive as it makes it difficult for police to make breakthroughs on crime,” Tembo said.
The Commissioner promised that her office is geared to ensure that there is prompt police response when need arises. She said it is unfortunate that sometimes there have been some delays in responding to issues saying this should no longer be the case under her command.
The Commissioner also thanked Youth net and Counseling (Yoneco) for supporting the training and asked for more support. She said there are still more areas that need help including provision of equipment such as whistles and torches.
Speaking earlier, Mulanje Police Officer In – Charge, Edwin Magalasi condemned the tendency of assaulting the elderly on witchcraft accusations. He said community policing members should therefore ensure that such senior citizens are equally protected.
One of the participants and chairperson for Mabuka Community Policing Forum (CPF), Mavuto Mwazambo said the training will help him discharge his duties professionally.
