29 Apr 2018

Minister of Defence, Justice and Security, Mr Shaw Kgathi says the battle against crime cannot be won without active and effective participation of the community in the form of community policing clusters.

Officiating at the eighth annual National Community Policing awards ceremony in Francistown recently, he noted that cluster policing was a platform that enabled the community to support crime intelligence and effective police operations.

That, he said was because cluster policing also brought together people who worked and lived in the same neighborhood.

Mr Kgathi also stated that the cluster policing philosophy prompted communities to proactively develop solutions to the underlying problems relating to their locality.

“Take for example drug trafficking and usage. It is the community who would have sufficient knowledge about who is a drug user or trafficker in their neighborhood and it is them who can formulate and drive community based solutions to such a problem,” he added.

He further stated that it was important that all sectors such as the business people, youth and community based organisations take part in cluster policing in order to attain successful identification as well as coming up with creative solutions to crime challenges in various communities and also reducing national crime statistics broadly.

Earlier on in his welcome remarks, commissioner of police, Mr Keabetswe Makgophe indicated that deployment of the cluster policing programme along with other crime control strategies such as intelligence-led policing and visible policing strategies had enabled the police service to continue managing crime relatively well in Botswana.

Mr Makgophe further acknowledged that the Botswana Police Service adopted community policing in order to boost the limited strength of the organisation in the fight against crime and the pursuit of creating a safe and secure environment for the residents of Botswana.

He however clarified that the awards ceremony should not be misconstrued as an attempt to separate winners from losers, emphasising that all clusters were considered winners and expressed hope that the awards would continue to motivate many others to see the need to support community policing initiatives in the country.

The awards hosted under the theme; Towards Safer and Secure Communities, had four categories which included the Community Commitment award, which was scooped by Dinokwane Cluster from Tonota and Kagisano Cluster from Ghanzi among many other awardees.

Another category, Best Practice award was presented to Cluster Six from Jwaneng and Thokolo Cluster from Mahalapye, among others.

Serowe, Mogoditshane and Maun police stations were among recipients for the Best Station award category.

The last award for the event was the prestigious Minister’s Award for Excellence in Community Policing, which was scooped by Kanye Police Station.

Giving a brief on the evaluation process, the chairperson of the Neutral panelists, Mr Phenyo Moalusi explained that among other aspects, they focused on whether or not targets were met; they examined the level of commitment as well as if clusters were able to use task forces to combat crime. ENDS