Dear Editor – I lived here between the peripheries of the capital of Solomon Islands in one of those areas labelled as back squatters (not to be named for the purpose of fairness), despite the fact we have access to all basic services in the country.
The only major problem our small community of good people always confront with is the issue of misbehavior and violent practices by certain group of young sometimes middle aged people.
These have slowly go on for quite a number of years now and as someone who lived here for almost 10 years I can tell that this is getting worse.
I want to genuinely say that there were nights that I could not sleep so as my family because of noises coming from thoughtless human beings who think of themselves and their pleasure.
As to be frank, some people out there might also have similar encounter wherever they are however, they are becoming silent about it but to me I have never been back down and at some point I almost take the law into my own hands but with the guiding wisdom from above I always find a way out.
This now take us to see why the heading above existed and that is, Police presence is always scarce during those times.
If you ask me whether I have our Police emergency number, the answer is, “definitely Yes”.
I already saved the Police Emergency Number #999 in my Samsung Galaxy S7.
So why are you not calling us? Our good police officer on the front desk of central police station might ask while reading this, why?
The Answer is, “it’s a total waste of time”.
The systematic approach always taken is, “who is calling? What is your complain? Tell us your location in town?
We’ll get back to you.
When the Hilux with small blue square boxes (one called police vehicle) arrived on the scene, there was no longer a single person present to be held answerable to all the nuisance.
These kind of people are very alert full and when they see you our police officers in your vehicles they can dash out from the spot in any seconds.
The question is how can our police officers on duty during the day and night better change their approach to such scenarios.
I have the answer and that is “START WALKING”.
We especially our police officers have missed a lot of opportunities to catch perpetrators out there just because we prefer driving than walking.
Well you have a lot of points or what I called excuses going on right now in your head regarding my point but strategically that is one out of the many tactics you already have that when applied carefully from my point of view, you can catch the real culprits anywhere anytime.
Whilst saying these I also genuinely congratulate our Police force for doing a lot of fine works and this is to say that more is still to be done.
It is the dream of our people to see themselves moving freely, sleeping freely etc. without fear whether it be day or night with a 100% assurance that they a safe.
Who is going to fulfill these dreams?
I firmly believe it is you our police force with the help of God and our good people of this country with the reversing of the above heading, “INCREASE POLICE PRESENCE ON OUR ROADS AND OUR BACK PERIPHERIES DAY AND NIGHT”.
I do not believe in answers like, we have short number of officers while large number of youths , form 3’s, form 5’s and form 6’s drop outs or leavers who are physically fit are still out on our streets searching for jobs, why not adjust the recruitment process to be flexible a bit and start encourage our youths to apply.
The leaders, elites and some of the prominent people of these country often become more reluctant about these things or will never voice these issues out because they leave in houses where strong iron bars and fence were built around with 24/7 security surveillances to watch over them and their properties but who are we the working class people since we cannot afford these security services, you police are our only hope of security and safety and do not let us lose confidence in you.
The common perception present in the minds of our citizens is that, police is anyone who is physically fit and well trained for combat and if you asked any children probably from 7-10 years of age who a police is?
That kid will give you a mind blowing answer which is, a police is a very strong person and can cope up with anything.
So now you can see our good police officers, that these diverse definition best suites our context ignoring the oxford definition, the citizens always see you from that angle and this should be a boost to your performances.
Now START WALKING and make a benchmark where other countries will see and when opportunities allowed our government can send more of our faithful police officers as UN peace keepers in places like Sudan or even Iraq.
Billy Mwane
Honiara
