By Rex Mphisa
BEITBRIDGE residents want more police officers deployed to their district, their increased all round visibility, and their mordenised tool kit complete with more vehicles, real cameras, bullet proof vests among several other enablers to their role.
Residents also asked for the regular transfers of police from Beitbridge where most become more comfortable and start enriching themselves instead of working as has become the current situation.
Nyoni suggested that expert areas like the CID could have systematic transfers for continuity but other areas that are not special mut be regularly visited.
These and several other issues were mentioned during a Crime Liaison Committee meeting in Beitbridge on Tuesday.
The committee also learnt that police laptops and other ancillaries were “rotting” at head office where they await commissioning and distribution to stations where they are needed sooner rather than later.
“You will notice that police use their phones to capture images at crime scenes and these images disappear if the officers phone is stolen or if he is transferred. Police must have real station cameras and photographers dispatched to scenes. Because of the prevalence of robbers we also expect police having bullet proof vests we have since secured from head office,” said Gift Nyoni in his report back statement.
“We have also asked the Police General Headquarters for more policemen to increase the team deployed to Beitbridge which is a hive of activity. We also want laptops, Beitbridge police rely on those belonging to individuals and that is embarrassing,” he said.
“We have heard laptops were bought but await commissioning before being deployed to stations we feel is not good,” said Nyoni.
The Crime Liaison Committee in Beitbridge in Beitbridge is an initiative by the Criminal Investigations Department involving a stakeholder body that discusses criminal activities and Beitbridge seeking ways to end it.
It comprises businessmen, civil servants, ordinary citizens, clergymen and te general cross-section of society who hold a no-holds barred sessions envisaging a safe, crime-free Beitbridge.
A member of the Beitbridge Residents Association Mlaleli Ncube said a person could walk for three days in Beitbridge without meeting any police officers who were concentrated at the border post and river points where they make money from travellers.
“You can walk for three days in any direction of Dulivhadzimu and you will never meet a policeman. You only see them at the border (post) and certain points by the river where they line their pockets,” he said mentioning what is general talk at Beitbridge.
In Beitbridge almost all policemen drive cars that do not correspond to their salaries and income.
Another resident appealed for police cars saying most of the time people end up hiring cars for policemen to attend their reports.
A businessman identified as Ngwenya who runs Croco Foods suggested that police be given several cars intercepted after being smuggled through Beitbridge that lie idle at the local police station.