26 Mar 2017

Station Commander for Dibete Police, Superintendent Phineas Makwaeba has appreciated the Volunteer Community Policing saying its intended role in addressing community ills was paying off.
Speaking in an interview recently, Superintendent Makwaeba said Volunteer Community Policing dated back to 1984 when it was commonly known as Twantsho Borukuthi.
He said even back then, its efforts were noticeable as its objective was for volunteers to help police officers who were limited in number to address the root causes of crime in their localities.
Explaining their day to day activities, Superintendent Makwaeba said the Dibete Volunteer Community Policing together with police officers often engaged in foot patrols coupled with raids on regular basis.
“This has proven to work in apprehending the culprits as volunteers help in reinforcing the police squad when there is a report and that needs a great number of manpower,” he said.
He said through community policing, the Dibete volunteers have managed to address issues as brewing of illegal brews in addition to reducing offences like selling outside operating hours.
For one to join the community policing, he said they should be citizens of Botswana, living in that locality and should have no criminal record.
Mr Makwaeba warned those who did not cooperate with the volunteers cautioning that they had been given the authority to arrest.
On other issues he expressed concern of repeated criminal activities and stock theft which he said had a high number of cases as compared to other offences.
“In 2016 we recorded 12 cases of stock theft while in 2015, 33 cases were recorded and this is attributed to poor management of cattle by certain farmers who leave their cattle to stray and those that take long to brand their cattle,” he said.
Superintendent Makwaeba also advised that every Motswana should be involved in crime prevention.ENDS