8 June 2023
The Ministry Defence and Security and the Botswana Police Service (BPS) will soon launch the ‘City Policing’ strategy designed to curb the crime surge in Botswana.
The Gaborone Central Police Station (CPS), which is currently under renovation, is set to house the first ever City Policing Department, the ministry and the BPS has revealed. Lately the spike in crime has become a great concern in Botswana, with thieves and criminals regularly pouncing on vulnerable civilians.
The recent crime rampage has pressured the Ministry of Defence and Security and the BPS into coming up with strategies to address the situation. Speaking to Mmegi in an interview during a CPS site visit recently, the Minister for Defence and Security Thomas Mmusi said:
“The recent crime activities have really become notable to us, calling on us to take action. First, we deployed the Special Support Groups (SSG) around Gaborone, but now we plan to launch a new department in the police sector called the City Policing in a few months to come.”
With the department of City Policing in the pipeline, Mmusi revealed that the CPS, which is currently being renovated, will be one of the chosen police stations to implement it.
“I believe the revamped CPS will be chosen as the headquarters for this new department,” the minister said.
“The Department of City Policing will ensure that this city is safe and secure and stamp out the crime that is on the rise,” he stated.
For his part, the acting Police Commissioner, Solomon Mantswe said the Department of City Policing will solely focus on rapid response.
“Most of the time when people report crimes, the police go out and attend the cases. It is the same police who come back to the station to do investigations, which is a lot of work,” he said.
Mantswe emphasised that City Policing Department would strive to make it its mandate to arrive at crime scenes in a short space of time.
“The City Policing will also be of great help to places that do not currently have surveillance cameras, which are prone to criminal activities, and this is where this department will come in. Equipped officers will be deployed there to resolve whatever they might face and prevent crime in such areas,” Mantswe pointed out.
Mantswe also indicated that the BPS plans to install more cameras around the city.
“We will continue increasing cameras because it is within our mandate to make the city safer. We will be installing around 1,800 additional cameras here in Gaborone,” he stated.
Mantswe further said the BPS would bring in Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV) to curb crime.
“We will soon use UAV to patrol around the city, and this technology will also help us improve the protection of cars that ferry money from afar without having to follow them like we are doing now,” Mantswe said.
Mantswe implored Batswana to have faith in the police to clamp down on crime and make it hard for criminals to operate in Botswana.
Source: https://www.mmegi.bw/news/revamped-cps-to-house-first-ever-city-policing/news
