Police deploy female officers to fight crime
Boniface Keakabetse | Wednesday October 8, 2014 16:29
. According to reports, police have set up a team exclusively made up of women from all over District No. 5 to bring down worrying elements of crime in Maun.
District No. 5 comprises Gweta, Maun, Sehitwa, Gumare, Shakawe and Seronga police stations.
Officer commanding District No.5, Chabaesele Kesupetswe, revealed to Mmegi on Monday that the team, known as the ‘Women Network’, was created to help fight rampant crime in Maun.
He said that female members of the network are sourced from all stations within the police district whenever there is a developing trend of crime in Maun.
Kesupetswe also said in the past they requested for women reinforcements from other parts of the country when conducting operations against rising instances of rape in Maun.
He said the taskforce mainly conducted public awareness campaigns about crime.
“We once had worrying incidents of rape in Maun and through this project we have made a lot of progress,” he said.
“Women are better received by members of the public as compared to males.”
He said they observed that members of the public respond and listen to women better than men.
Recently, the Officer Commanding said, there had been a worrying streak of young children being knocked down by vehicles along the village roads.
“Our investigations proved that a lot of these cases were caused by parents’ negligence as some of the children were killed when they had been sent on errands to tuckshops along busy highways,” he said.
“The Women Network was reconvened again to conduct educational campaigns in homes, schools and clinics targeting parents and students.”
Kesupetswe said modern policing is based on transformational leadership, which is more consultative and negotiative.
Hence before pressing charges, police have to educate the public first.
“However, if cases of child neglect persist, we ultimately have to take action in line with existing laws such as the Childrensß Act,” he said. The Women’s Network was also active during the recent Independence Day holidays where officers were deployed to root out common cases such as drunken driving.
“During the Independence holidays, the Women Network restrained the rampancy of drink and driving,” he said.
He said that they realised that Maun is a Mecca for fun loving local tourists who visit during holidays but abuse alcohol.
“We have realised that the main form of entertainment in Maun is alcohol abuse and this is a serious cause of concern for us.
“We have conducted various educational campaigns to sensitise the public against dangers of alcohol but the situation is not abating,” said Kesupetswe.
He said they discovered that in four hours an average of 18 cases were recorded, showing that people drank excessively. The discovery was made only on selected village roads.