The Commissioner said this when she officially opened a Regional Executive Committee meeting on Community Policing in Lilongwe Friday.
She says among others the meeting is to act as a platform for the police to reflect on what led to public mistrust and bad blood between the service and the people it serves.
“How could the community vandalize Police units that were built by themselves? Were the actions by the members of the community justifiable, perhaps not? Should we say that it was because the police acted unprofessionally? These are the important questions we all need to answer to help us contract a new policing direction,” said Yolamu
Yolamu however, acknowledges that the conduct of some officers could have led to public mistrust in the service, making reference to some incidents in a series of demonstrations in the country where demonstrators uttered words indicating their loss of faith in the service.
She has since tipped the officers to capitalize on the current political stability to regain public trust by sticking to professionalism.
“We have an impact of such actions and these are lessons that should make us revitalize and find ways on how we sustain such gains regarding community policing initiatives. We need to bury the past, times have changed, and we need to move with the changed times. We will have to do our business unusual, added Yolamu.
These sentiments were echoed by the Acting Chairperson for the Regional Executive Committee for Community Policing Alfred Muunika.
Meanwhile, the NICE TRUST has pledged to support the police in reaching out to the public in its confidence building and public trust regaining
Enock Chinkhuntha is Regional Civic Officer for NICE Trust. He says “Democracy cannot be achieved in a country unless the community is stable and free, therefore we wil support the police in reaching out to the community to rebuild the lost trust,” said Chinkhuntha.
Police records show that the central region has recorded a 17.6% increase in crime in the past 6 months compared to the same last year, with mob justice as a major contributor.
