Selma Ikela
WINDHOEK – The Khomas Regional Police Commander, Commissioner Joseph Shikongo said he does not want police officers telling the public that they cannot attend to incidents because they do not have vehicles.
Shikongo said police officials are not mandated to tell the public that they don’t have cars “because that is not an answer”. He advised officers to consult and inform the station commander of the difficulties they face when expected to attend to public matters. Shikongo said the station commander is expected to call the regional commander and ask for solutions when confronted with such cases.
Shikongo said he recently visited One Nation informal settlement in the company of the Wanaheda police station commander, Chief Inspector James Nandapo, and people asked if police exist because whenever they call the police station they are told that no vehicles are available.
“The issue of police officers saying we don’t have resources is not true. And therefore, as regional commander I don’t want to hear any of the station or area commanders telling the public we cannot come because we don’t have a car – that must come to an end,” remarked Shikongo who shared crime statistics of the integrated police operation between the Namibian Police Force and City Police, last week Friday. He also said that he does not want to have a scenario of police vehicles failing to attend to cases reported but to have an entourage of 20 vehicles when, for example, a murder takes place.
“Those giving such answers that we don’t have cars, it is not acceptable at all from management point of view (sic),” he said. He asked why a particular police station if faced with a vehicle shortage, cannot call another for assistance or even the City Police to assist.
“The cars you see, whether Nampol or City Police, are government cars because it’s ta payers’ money,” he further remarked.
Sharing the weekly crime report, the City Police’s crime and crash analyst, Acting Assistant Superintendent Alexandrina Petrus said only two-armed robbery cases were opened between July 8 to 14. The police target was four cases, said Petrus. Statistics indicated that fewer cases of assault with grievous bodily harm (GBH) were opened during the said period.
Petrus further reported that only 21 cases were opened while the police target was 36. For armed robberies, 21 cases were opened while the police target was 23. No cases of attempted murder were opened. However, two cases of murder were opened and the police target was one case. For robbery, 20 cases were opened while the police target was 23 cases.
Meanwhile, traffic statistics were alarming as everything was highlighted in red. This means that police registered more cases than their targets. “You can see we are not supposed to have more than 69 crashes but we had 83 crashes. We had two fatalities, 28 injuries, 16 alcohol-related crashes and eight vulnerable road users,” explained Petrus.
Sharing the success of the operation, Nampol Detective Warrant Officer Melvin Gaseb said 87 knives and pangas, regarded as dangerous weapons, were confiscated. A total of 56 ballies (pellets of marijuana) confiscated in Ombili area are valued at N$890 and one suspect was arrested. Police confiscated firearms, live ammunition, clothes, drugs, and hubbly-bubblies, among others.