BY Alfred Kollie
With the limited manpower of the Liberia National Police (LNP) stretched to capacity, the LNP certainly needs the cooperation of community people to assist in cracking down on crimes, a local police commander in Monrovia’s Paynesville suburb has stressed.
Officer Tarnue Kerkula, the brain behind the establishment of the “Community Watch Forum” says establishing the network is a possible solution to addressing some security challenged across Liberia.
Speaking during a gathering of some community leaders in Paynesville this week, Tarnue Karkula said it was important that community and police work together
Kerkula, who is the Commander of the Zone 8 Depot in ELWA Paynesville, believes the involvement of the community in the provision of security is an easy way of safeguarding one’s own environment.
He said although it is the responsibility of national security apparatus to protect the country and its people, the community people can perform a greater responsibility in ensuring the success of this process.
During the last Ebola outbreak in Liberia, the active community involvement in the fight against the deadly disease is on record to have been a very crucial factor in the defeat of the menace across the country.
In an interview with www.newspublictrust.com , Kerkula said the level of criminality within his area of assignment is “worrisome” and stressed the need for community dwellers to work with the police in handling the situation.
“We observed that some criminal activities, especially in SD Cooper Community, most often people who are engage in snatching away of cell phones, while windows bars are sometimes damage by criminals at night. We observed that some of our brothers are involved with this act during the night hours,” the local Police Commander explained.
These criminal activities, he said are creating serious embarrassment for some community inhabitants and locals in the SD Cooper area need similar community policing approach which has already being instituted in other areas around Liberia.
In an effort to ensure a safe community for residents of the SD Cooper Community, ahead of the Christmas and New Year festivities, Kerkula revealed that discussions are already being carried out with community leaders to establish a Community Policing Forum.
“We have block leaders whose names would be submitted to me and the houses will be marked to help the police track down and respond to incident immediately if needed,” Kerkula said.
This week’s Community Policing Forum in the Paynesville suburb of Monrovia was
organized by Swiss International group, Bowier Trust Foundation Switzerland.
At the forum, Madam Marina Dolokeleh, a resident of the SD Cooper Road Community expressed delight over the move to establish community policing forum in her community.
Dolokeleh complained of a wave of continued harassment and criminal activities in the community, especially at night time.
Personally victimized by criminals recently, she explained how they burglarized her home during the night hours only to escape police arrived.
“Criminals entered my house and business center and took away a lot of things including money,” the Liberian business woman explained.
She feels the establishment of the community police forum along with the Liberia National Police will ably address the situation, urging that the process to put the Community Policing Forum in her community be fast track.
Meanwhile, Bowier Trust Foundation Switzerland Government Advisor Maxwell Jones has said the move falls in line with one of his organization’s pillars on security.
“The Bowier Trust Foundation, one of our pillars is to bring together community and police and we have taken the initiative of brining this community which we are in together with the local police,” Jones said.
He said it is important that the community people know who their police officers are, so that they can easily communicate with each other.
According to him, the interactions with community dwellers and police is important in providing a secure environment for communities, especially during the Christmas festival.
There are police depots located in strategic parts of some communities but the effectiveness in reaching crime scene especially at night is a serious challenge. Many of these police depots are sometimes far away from many communities with police officers complaining of lack of logistics.