The Midweek Sun rightly said in its Editorial (19 - 01 - 2005) “The kidnapping and dumping of a top police officer by criminals who looted his station of a lot of money should be a serious worry for peace loving nationals.
This certainly points to bad times that are with us. Police used to be feared by criminals. They would do anything but dare lift a hand against them.
Police were a fortitude that gave peace to a lot of us. Being a neighbour to a cop was a benefit. It was like you had a body guard”.
As proof that this situation is now becoming a serious worry for peace loving nationals, one reader was quoted in one of the papers as saying criminals would not be so daring if people could be allowed to possess firearms to defend themselves, yet another proposed that the police should be provided with a helicopter. Arming the citizens is certainly fraught with danger and many people would not go along with such a proposal.
The recent deployment of special constables and the combined effort of both the police and some armed members of the Defence Force has amply demonstrated to us that there are other less hazardous methods of fighting crime than resorting to the use of firearms by the citizenry. Certainly the purchase of a helicopter for the police is one such method. It is unfortunate that despite what vision 2016 says, government is most of the time slow in providing the police with the kind of resources which would make the police more effective in their fight against criminals.
In December 1994 while a member of Parliament, I asked the Hon. Minister of Presidential Affairs And Public Administration whether he does not consider it opportune, in view of an increase in criminal acts involving drug-peddling and murder, to introduce sniffer-dogs to assist the police in detecting or tracking down criminals who commit murder under circumstances where their arrest and conviction is hampered by the lack of eye-witnesses at the scene of the crime.
His response was that, introduction of sniffer-dogs to assist the police during investigations is under active consideration. It is necessary that the need to introduce sniffer dogs must be thoroughly researched before they can be introduced as, among other things, dogs require very special attention and well trained handlers. In addition, they are rather expensive to maintain and thus the financial implication of their introduction should be known before-hand. It will only be after all these facts are known, including the frequency of incidents which may require the use of sniffer dogs, that he could say with certainty whether it would be opportune to introduce them to assist the Police in their investigations.
One may wish to know whether eleven years hence the necessary facts are still not known to enable government to introduce sniffer-dogs to assist the police in their investigations.
My contention is that such a step would be in line with sentiments expressed in Vision 2016. The vision clearly states that “There is a challenge to improve the quality of policing through increased resources and higher levels of sophistication and motivation, and to provide specialised training and adaptation to changing crime trends.
“Botswana must meet the challenge to control and limit the level of crime in the country. This applies to crime such as common theft and armed robbery, as well as more sophisticated international crime such as drug trafficking, money laundering, corruption and economic crime.”
Finally, I fully endorse the view expressed by The Midweek Sun that while there is every justification for the protection of judicial staff against criminals given the humiliation our Chief Justice and the Special Advisor to the president were subjected to by the criminals, let us not forget the protection of those who are at the centre stage of our fight against crime. As The Midweek Sun rightly asks, the question that now comes is who protects the police.
It cannot be disputed that policing is one occupation with a great deal of risks to life and limb. We need to attract many of our youth into the force. This means that the salaries of police officers will have to be sufficiently attractive to achieve this objectives. Our aim should not only be to reduce crime but to eliminate it completely in order to create an environment which would be sufficiently attractive to investors. Ntsi e okwa ke boladu.
