Limbe Market to have CCTV cameras

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The photo shows people doing business as usual at the Limbe market in Blantyre, Malawi, on Sept. 17, 2020. (Xinhua/Joseph Mizere)
In a bid to make Limbe market a crime-free zone, authorities at Limbe Police Station say plans to install Closed Circuit Television (CCTV) cameras around the market are at an advanced stage.

This is according to the station’s Officer In-charge, Gladson Chipumphula who was speaking with one of the local media houses where he said the move is to help in maintaining peace and order around Limbe township.

Chipumphula who is also the deputy commissioner of police said the intervention is one of the station’s mechanisms to respond swiftly to crimes around the busy market, Limbe and to create a conducive environment for everyone visiting the market.

He indicated that at the station, they have established a new office called ‘Joint Operations Center’ where representatives from CID, Road Traffic, Operations, Signals, General Duties departments will be working from.

It is reported that these representatives will be monitoring every situation happening around Limbe market and in case there is need for police intervention, the representatives will be assigning relevant officers to attend to the situation.

“For the first time, we will have CCTV cameras around Limbe soon. We will have a new office which will accommodate representatives from almost every department and they will be monitoring everything happening in every street and inside Limbe market. So if there is a situation that needs a traffic officer, then the representative will assign a traffic officer to attend to that situation.

“We noted that police patrols are not enough. So that’s why we thought of bringing these CCTV cameras and this will help us to be recording evidences of anyone who will go against the law,” said Chipumphula.

He further indicated they have since partnered with the corporate world on the initiative, claiming they are fully aware that the Malawi government alone cannot afford to provide for their every requirement in the initiative.

He has however asked the Blantyre City Council to make sure that all the streets in Limbe township have streetlights saying the CCTV cameras service will be working even at night so as to reduce crimes that are committed at night.

The officer-in-charge further then encouraged the corporate world to help the station achieve its goal of making Limbe a crime-free zone by providing financial support arguing that their current partners can’t do everything alone.

“Government alone cannot manage to provide funds for whatever we want in this initiative. So, let me first of all thank companies that have helped us, however we still need more support. We still need funds for furniture, computers and additional cameras,” he added.

He further mentioned that cases of street kids attack in Limbe have reduced courtesy of rapid response programme which the station launched in June this year to provide extensive patrols by a special reaction police team.

Recently, the station also introduced ‘My phone My Zone Security Initiative’ where officers who are already in the station’s six zones will be attending to various situations seeking police assistance after being called through every zone’s toll-free code.

 

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