The Zambia Police (ZP) says it will use electronic means and revamp the police toll free number (991) & the national call centre as part of the reforms to make the service more responsive and meet the best practices of policing.
The Zambia police command has of late been criticized for failure to put in place a fully functional and monitored public policing system. The currently not fully functional call centre and toll free number has further exacerbated the the negative perceptions regarding the ability of the Police to respond to public emergencies.
ZP spokeperson Esther Katongo stated that “though the Police call centre and toll free line is currently not fully functional due to challenges with some mobile service providers, government and the police command are working on a permanent solution through the establishment of the massive command centre, that will have an independent communication line. This command centre is almost complete”.
In an exclusive response to the Zambian Business Times – ZBT, Katongo stated that most of the police’s operations will soon be electronic following the launch of smart Zambia and Safe Zambia, which are both key government programes.
Katongo said the process of going electronic for ZP operations and systems has already begun and soon, most of the operations such as receiving of reports from the public and logging in reports directly to a central data base will be launched. This will ensure that there is no tampering of reports afterwards when you compare with the paper based method.
And to monitor its operations and the armoury in order to ensure that police officers return guns before going home, the Police spokeperson stated that each police station has an armourer whose duty is to monitor the usage of firearms, therefore it is feasible for each police station to monitor movement, storage and usage of firearms.
Moreover, this process will also not be left out when digitizing the operations. There will be electronic monitoring of the Armoury as well. Then logging in of reports by both the public and police stations will soon be electronic and this will lead to an audit trail and timely transmitting of information.
She further told ZBT that the police service is also working on having electronic dockets and the system will be linked to sister institutions in the justice system. She added that the process of allocating computers to police stations and centers has already begun, “we as the police are already implementing the online service programme under smart Zambia”.
She stated that some stations have already been given computers while some are yet to receive, adding that special security features will and have been considered to avoid leakage or tampering of data and information.
She said the Safe Zambia project will also ensure monitoring of happenings across the country where semi command centres are also being built. This project is scheduled to be completed before August this year.
When asked how the issue of Police stations failure to respond to emergency calls on account of lack of fuel or transport?, Katongo told ZBT that the police may have challenges with fuel and transportation, but as an institution, just like any other, it works around them, adding that government has started buying motor vehicles for the police and soon the challenge will be addressed.
She also told ZBT that the community in some instances have helped to buy fuel or by donating vehicles to the police in their community as policing is a shared responsibility. These initiatives by the community are commendable.
On the issue of members of the public facing challenges to log complaints against Police officers who are denting the image of the service? Katongo advised members of the public who may have complaints against police officers to visit their nearest police stations and report such officers to the supervisors found at each police station.
She said members of the public logging a complaint against Police offices will be required to make a statement which will be recorded and a docket opened, in emergencies the public is advised to use the national communication line which will in turn inform the responsible or nearest police to respond. She added that these reforms which were announced, are still being worked on, and all efforts to put in controls by electronic means have reached an advanced stage.
