Central Regional police to rebuild public trust

Central Regional police has engaged communities through the Regional Executive Committee to rebuild trust lost during the post May 21 2019 Tripartite Elections protests.

The meeting, which took place on Friday at Central Regional Police Headquarters in Lilongwe, was attended by participants from the region’s 12 districts.

In her remarks, Central Regional Police Commissioner Meryne Yolamu said they wanted to engage communities in confidence-building on the gaps between police and the public.

She said the past year had been characterised by a series of demonstrations and Central Region was hit hard in terms community aggression towards the police.

“Communities have lost trust in the police. As a result, community members administer mob justice and are not willing to handover suspects to police,” said Yolamu.

She asked National Initiative for Civic Education (Nice) Trust to help in changing public perception about the police.

On his part, Nice regional civic education officer (Centre) Enoch Chinkhutha said their mandate is to promote good governance and democracy in the country; hence, they will engage communities.

“Being a civic-educating body, we will work with the police to promote democracy through the enforcement of safety and security of citizens and their property,” he said.

Central Region executive committee chairperson Alfred Munika said they will convince traditional leaders and community members to forget about the sour relationship that existed between them and the police in the past.