Malawi Police Service (MPS) says it needs an additional 11 900 police officers to meet the service’s latest recommended establishment of about 31 240 cops to enhance security in the country.
Police data presented to Minister of Homeland Security Ezekiel Ching’oma during his familiarisation tour at Police National Headquarters in Lilongwe on Tuesday shows that the country has 19 340 police officers.
The figure represents a ratio of one police officer to about 1 072 civilians as the country’s population is currently estimated at around 20.7 million people. The ratio is almost double the United Nations’ (UN) recommended one police officer to 500 civilians.
“The latest establishment review recommended that MPS strength should be 31 240 officers. Therefore, there is need to recruit more police officers in order to match with the security demands,” reads the report in part.
In an interview yesterday, Inspector General of Police Merlyne Yolamu said the service plans to recruit more police officers, but said limited police training school space is a major challenge.
However, she said there was an improvement in the police to population ratio, saying within the past three years, over 6 000 new police officers were recruited.
“We will continue to train more officers. Remember that when you are training new officers there is also attrition where some officers retire, some resign, and some dismissed. That is why while our intention is to move forward as quickly as possible, you also encounter some drawbacks,” said Yolamu.
For a number of decades, Malawi has struggled to meet the UN recommended ratio of one police officer to 500 civilians, despite police recruiting constables almost every year.
The current ratio is about 33 percent decrease from the ratio of one police officer to 1 600 civilians in 2024 before the passing out of 1 993 recruit constables in July last year.
In 2022, the ratio was at one police officer to 1 800 civilians, while in 2015, it was at one police officer to 1 300 civilians.
Commenting on the matter, Mzuzu University Security Studies lecturer Aubrey Kabisala observed that it will be a toll order for Malawi to achieve the UN recommended one police officer to 500 civilians.
He noted that it is a general trend that the government has been struggling to recruit officers even in other sectors due to shortage of resources.
