By Magreth Nunuhe
WINDHOEK – The Chief of the City Police, Abraham Kanime, says revenue collected from traffic fines is taken by the state and the City Police do not get this money as income. What they do get, he said, is funding from the City of Windhoek (CoW), which drains the resources of the municipality.
“There is no income for the City Police,” he said, adding that the budget for running the police force is quite huge and their fleet of vehicles operates 24 hours a day, which costs a lot of money.
He says the City Police need at least N$100 million per annum to run their operations and so far they have been tapping into the resources of CoW from income received for rates and taxes. The police chief said when the Police Act was amended to include municipal police, no provision was made for a separate budget, which is why they have been at the mercy of CoW for funding.
However, he said they were looking at ways to have the Act amended to increase funding for the police.
Last week, the CoW proposed a security levy be effected whereby residents and businesses would be charged N$50 and N$100 every month, respectively, to cover the costs incurred by the City Police in carrying out their crime prevention operations.
However, many residents have complained that the proposed levy will be an added burden as they are already “overtaxed”, but Kanime motivated that the proposed levy would enable the City Police to carry out their mandate on a 24-hour basis, which is required to fight crime each and every day.
“There is no other way. The city won’t be able to fund the police,” he maintained, adding they also want a slice of the income received from traffic fines.
He said they revised their structure in 2013 to increase the personnel and vehicle components of the force and so far 75 percent of the number of vehicles needed have been received, while they still need to recruit an extra 80 police officers.
Joshua Amukugo, CoW’s Manager: Public Relations, shared Kanime’s sentiments saying for ten years they have been looking at other revenue streams to fund the City Police as the municipality was also burdened with the current funding arrangement.
“In order for the City of Windhoek to continue living up to its commitment of creating a safe environment for our residents and visitors in a rapidly growing city, we tried all possible means to get the necessary funds,” he added.
Amukugo said their proposal has not yet been implemented and has to go through various phases and consultations with all relevant stakeholders before it goes to the public for input.