Last year, the unemployed youth movement were beaten and arrested for picketing in front of Parliament chambers in broad day light and in full view of MPs; they were neither in any way violent nor posed threat to peace. Lately motorists are also complaining that the police are all out to impoverish them with heavy fines; they are threatened with impounding of vehicles if they fail to pay on the spot. There are some cases of police brutality which have been reported in the media and the worst were deaths in custody and suspects disappearing in police custody and are now presumed dead by relatives. These incidents point to serious problems in contemporary policing.
In terms of the Police Act and the Penal Code as well as other laws, Botswana Police Service, as a law enforcement agency, has been granted the freedom of using invariable coercive force to quell disturbances, effect arrests and ensure general public order. While the authority to use such force is not an issue, its proper application is the fundamental problem of contemporary police misconduct. Stories of police brutality characterised by inhuman and degrading treatment, torture and other forms of excessive force have been widely reported in the local news media, some cases have reached the courts of law.
