Patrols: Police chief reads riot act

POLICE Commissioner-General Godwin Matanga said the recently launched Harare Province Patrol Unit was aimed at preventing and reducing crime in and around the city, and warned officers deployed to perform such duties that they risked being charged under the Police Act if they abandon the patrols.

The officers have since started patrolling the city. The patrols are done 24 hours, mostly in crimeprone areas.

Comm-Gen Matanga said he was aware that when some officers were assigned patrol duties, they grumbled.

“The role played by the presence of uniformed police officers on patrol in the law enforcement system is often underestimated by most communities,” he said. “Surprisingly, there are also many police officers, particularly the young, who despise patrols.

“They consider patrolling as a menial exercise done by the unschooled or the unsophisticated. Very often, we learn that when members are assigned patrol duties, they grumble. At times they choose to loiter. Some even disappear from their areas of assignment.

“Nowadays, some of these members hide in private cars, or in shops, buildings and other areas. Supervisors also tend to do the same, neglecting their supervisory duties.”

Comm-Gen Matanga said such tendencies, when members leave or abandon their duties, without permission or reasonable excuse, contradict Section 12 of the Schedule to the Police Act.

“It is a serious act of indiscipline,” he said. “Police work demands a lot of discipline. One cannot choose which work to do and which work not to do. And neither can members choose to deploy themselves wherever they want without appropriate authority.”

Comm-Gen Matanga said the officers should never be ashamed of their work, as patrolling and doing beats was part of everyday police work.

“Policing is about the prevention and the reduction of crime in a given area,” he said. “Our patrols and beats should therefore aim to achieve crime prevention and reduction.

“It really pains me when I walk the streets and see them devoid of police patrols. When I only see security personnel from private security companies guarding their workplaces, the homeless and queues outside the banks, my heart bleeds.”

Comm-Gen Matanga recently said the force was not home to desperate job-seekers, and officers who were unloyal and untrustworthy should resign.

Comm-Gen Matanga, who was speaking during the launch of the Harare Province Patrol Unit in Chitungwiza, reminded the officers the oath they undertook to serve the people and the country. .

He said police officers who remained stuck in their offices, busy on WhatsApp platforms or idle could not prevent crime.