Community participation critical in fighting crime
Members of the public have been asked to join hands with the police to help eliminate crime. This was said by the Acting Police Commissioner, Phemelo Ramakorwane at the launch of the 60 Days of Action on Crime and Road Safety in Bobonong recently.
Ramakorwane said community involvement in the fight against crime is an essential tool to curb escalating crime incidents. He stated that the police are trying hard to curb crime but they could only achieve much success with community involvement. Ramakorwane also emphasised that people should stop pushing the narrative that the police are not doing enough to fight crime.
He further revealed that there have been comments that the public safety and security authorities are not doing enough to fight crime. “Comments of this nature fail to recognise a shared responsibility in crime prevention because even if you put more police officers on the streets, law enforcement alone will never be enough. It is members of the public that can provide the police with the relevant information and report the dangers that lurk in their neighbourhood hence pleading with them to be the eyes and ears of the police towards crime reduction,” Ramakorwane said.
He also pointed out that the festive season is a period for joy, celebration and peace but history has shown that this is a time when crime and road traffic accidents increase.
Additionally, he said criminals take advantage during this period to rob and defraud people of their valuable properties.
“This is the period when road traffic accidents also rob the country of its most valuable resource being human capital especially the youth, whilst also leaving many with permanent and life-changing injuries. The country has recently been plagued by a spate of armed robberies particularly targeting cash-in-transit vehicles and the blasting of ATMs,” he said.
He said these incidents had a negative impact and has put the security and growth of local businesses in disarray. Ramakorwane revealed that other areas of concern are drug trafficking, fraud, cybercrime, money laundering and cross border crime just to mention but a few.
“The entire community is affected by crime and road safety hence the need for them to be involved in the solutions. This year’s theme ‘Rethinking public safety and security post Covid-19 pandemic era’ means that we must reset our plans ahead as we ease into normalcy in our lives during this year’s festive season and beyond,” he said.
He added that the reason for hosting the launch in Bobirwa was to celebrate and reinforce the shared responsibility between law enforcement and the communities.
He stated that the success of curbing stock theft rustling in Bobirwa area is a story that remains to be told across the length and breadth of our country.
“We are proud and celebrate mephato across the Bobirwa region for their diligent performance and we have since taken a decision to invite other crime prevention structures to benchmark especially on the design and operation of mephato to fight anti-stock theft crime,” he said.
Ramakorwane further said Gender-Based Violence (GBV) is an area of concern within communities pleading with the public to report incidents of GBV during this campaign period and beyond. He said in responding to the scourge, the government established a gender and child protection branch to develop and implement appropriate programmes as well as to ensure that cases of this nature are thoroughly investigated. Moreover, he said the establishment of child friendly centres in Gaborone, Francistown, Shakawe and Letlhakane has proved to be very beneficial in the provision of police services to the most vulnerable members of the society. Ramakorwane further raised a concern over road traffic accidents that continue to claim lives calling for improvements of specific aspects and behaviours in public roads especially over speeding, driving without drivers licenses and drunken driving.
“We have already registered a total of 296 road traffic fatalities as compared to 278 fatalities for the same period last year thus suggesting an uncomfortable increase of 18 (6.45%) this year.
These figures are indeed on an upward and disturbing trajectory, which we need to collectively reverse,” he said. He stated that the youth remain the most road safety challenged category of road users.