Botswana Police tighten security this festive season

KEABETSWE NEWEL
Correspondent | Friday December 10, 2010 00:00

 

Senior superintendent and deputy public relations officer, Dipheko Motube, said the police have embarked on nation-wide strategies meant to stabilise crime rates and control bad behavior.

In the 'police beat patrols' armed police officers patrol every corner of the nation. 'Beat patrols enhance police visibility time and again and this obstructs crime doers. Criminals are intimidated by the police, if they keep seeing them every minute it will be impossible to commit crime,' explained Motube.

Motube also explained that the administrative police officers that usually work in offices have been included in the patrols. 'This is to ensure that with a profusion of police officers on the streets we will be able to cover the majority of places and even serve the purpose more swiftly than a few officers,' he said.

Motube said there will also be helicopter patrols that will make it easier to locate criminals who may decide to hide in places where cars cannot reach.

'In our helicopters we will easily navigate to our fellow officers on the ground to flush out the hiding criminals and arrest them,' Motube said.

Since many people are expected to leave for their villages during this period, the police have indicated that they have also put in place measures to assist the neighborhood watch to ensure the safety of properties left behind.

Crime control clusters are also in place to monitor crime situations in villages. Motube said that they have people in villages working hand in hand with the police to regulate crime.

Since armed criminals are also known to target chain stores and banks during the festive season, Motube assured the public of police commitment towards preventing this. 'Those situations are to date just history, as we speak armed police officers are at entrances of large chain stores and banks ensuring safety. Actually I could say we are guarding these places,' he said.

Motube said they have also rectified situations where police arrived late at scenes of crime because they were not able to communicate effectively amongst themselves. 

'We have improved our communication system as the Botswana Police spent over P25 million in upgrading its communication system. This project is called the Terrestrial Trunked Radio (TETRA), which is a communication network that enables police officers to locate where an individual radio is at any time.

It also enhances the supervisors' efficacy in terms of executing their operational responsibilities,' Motube explained.

Speed traps will also be set up every 10 to 20 kilometers. 'Drivers have a tendency of speeding after by-passing a speed trap thinking that they are now free to speed, and we want to avoid that by surprising them with frequent speed traps,' he said.

Motube explained that they now have new speed traps called 'On Board Speed Traps' which unlike the usual ground speed traps, can be carried in cars making it possible for the police driver to easily detect a speeding vehicle that it is tailing.

According to him they also have sobriety and saturation check points where they check drivers who are intoxicated and driving recklessly.

'We will be invading villages because it is where people are going and many things will be done in those villages.

We do not want to arrest people after they cause accidents but we want to arrest those driving recklessly before they cause accidents,' Motube said.

'Our major challenge remains road traffic accidents. People are dying at an alarming rate before they reach their destinations especially in big villages like Molepolole, Mochudi, Maun and others.

Highway accidents are no longer much of a concern but rather death accidents that involve people in the villages,' he said. He said sobriety checkpoints and saturations were introduced in villages to avoid accidents.

Motube expressed hope that with these strategies in place crime will be controlled; he also said they are positive that Batswana will avoid unnecessary violence and behave responsibly. He said with the alcohol levy and bar regulation times in place people will not spend much time in bars, and so avoid taking too much alcohol.

Assistant superintendent, Ontibile Motlading of Tatitown Police Station said they have ensured that they will have enough manpower by freezing all leave applications.

'We work with all our manpower, we do not allow leaves to be taken from December 1, because this period has high crime rates and we want to monitor it with adequate staff,' he said.

Superintendent Roodney Nkokwe, Kutlwano Police Station commander advices people not to carry huge sums of money to avoid being targets for thieves.

'We also advise Batswana to inform their neighbours of their whereabouts and ask them to look out for their properties in their absence.

People with alarms in their homes must also confirm that they are activated to monitor the situation.'