PNG’s police need a total re-engineering
22 June 2010
WITH SO MUCH public
criticism directed at the poor performance of the Royal PNG Constabulary, the government should direct the police hierarchy to
implement the recommendations of a so-called review undertaken two
years ago.
There appears to have been no progress made on the police implementing the recommendations to drastically improve the constabulary’s operational performance.
It is not clear what the government expects of its police force other than do its traditional job of enforcing the rule of law.
It is time the government focused on developing a professional police institution distinct from the defence force that would be responsible for internal security.
PNG needs a more dispersed, visible, accessible and service-orientated police force which will interact with the community and society.
The force‘s primary duty will be to protect citizens and property.
The government must aim to totally professionalise the police so that it becomes:
· more effective (that is, better at law enforcement)
· non-political and more accountable
· humane and committed to using minimal physical force
· law abiding and closely integrated into the civil community
· responsive to community needs
·
better
organised, better trained and better equipped
· operationally effective in urban, rural and border areas
· capable of pursuing complex investigations
· professionally managed
This will not be hard to achieve if we can better use domestic resources and complement these with international support in certain specialised and technical areas.
An obvious resource that the government has overlooked for many years that we should have already fully tapped into a long time ago is to fully engage former government, military and police members as well as current members of the constabulary and the community.
There is already a wealth of great knowledge and expertise amongst our own people to participate in efforts to reform the police in creating a new, professional civil force.
Any future reform strategies will only positively improve the local constabulary, whose activities are crucial to maintaining law and order, stability and control.
PNG badly needs effective, fair policing and humane civil disturbance control that is necessary for stability, order, conflict prevention and mitigation, and political, economic and social development.
Posted by: Reginald Renagi | 02 July 2010 at 03:50 PM
Agree and support the good ideas by Reginald about improving our police force. In the next few months we must improve our internal security situation. It is time we had a good Action Plans drawn up by the Police ministry to improve police performance, make the security agencies more responsive to many internal threats and improve their overall efficiency.
Posted by: Pats Lato | 23 June 2010 at 02:06 PM
PNG unfortunately has not quiet achieved what everyone would have liked in containing some internal security threats. It should be of a national concern that despite law enforcement efforts, the level of violence in our society continues to rise.
Posted by: Papa Mero | 23 June 2010 at 02:02 PM