26 Apr 2016

Superintendent Lebalang Maniki of Central police station in Francistown says the strategy of patrolling the city using bicycles continues to bring in positive results.

Speaking in an interview, Supt Maniki said the strategy was introduced early this year as an effort to bring down criminal offences.

He said offences such as burglary, theft, house and shop break-ins and others continued to be a challenge in some places within his policing area.

“In efforts to intensify the fight against crime, we recently introduced a strategy to patrol around using bicycles. This has brought in positive results as there is a significant decline in some of these criminal offences,” he said.

Supt Maniki revealed that last year between the months of October to December, they registered 308 cases of different criminal offences.

He said as of the beginning of this year to March, they have registered 218 cases, noting that the situation has declined largely due to increased patrols.

“Bicycle patrols were particularly introduced at Monarch Police Porta Cabin, which falls under Central police station. The station always records the highest statistics of different crime issues,” he said.

Supt Maniki said bicycle patrols are usually done during the day and mostly they target areas such as Monarch, Ntshe, Phase 5 and 6 as they are the hardest hit.

He said the patrols have increased the visibility of policemen in the streets, which even controls down issues of being idle and disorderly that often propel people to engage in criminal activities.

Supt Maniki also further expressed that the patrols have proved to be an effective means as they have remarkably improved the response time by the police.

“Once the matter in a nearby area is brought to our attention and incase the police vehicles are out on other errands, some policemen can ride to the scene and give out necessary assistance as soon as possible,” he said. Supt Maniki also indicated that with bicycles, it is easier to cover a wide range of an area and it is an effective means to track down criminals even in narrow paths that a vehicle cannot pass through. ENDS