Police reservists told to go

The National Main Stories

By MIRIAM ZARRIGA
POLICE reservists in Port Moresby should have returned yesterday all official gear issued to them before they exit the constabulary, a senior officer says.
Police Commissioner David Manning last week ordered the sending home of all police reservists except for those attached with certain organisations.
Yesterday was the last day they should have returned police-issued items.
National Capital District/Central commander Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP) Anthony Wagambie Jr said “those who continue to wear a police uniform and carry out general police orders (from) Sept 15 (today) will be charged with impersonation”.
“While (we) have had dedicated police reservists, there were those not trained properly and used their uniform to abuse (the system) and extort money,” ACP Wagambie said.
“It tarnished the good work of police and other reservists.
“I commend the many hardworking reservists who have contributed immensely towards policing in NCD and Central over the years.
“Many of them are committed, highly disciplined and active members of the constabulary.
“We have had complaints of abuse levelled against some of the reservists.
“We will now have a system to (screen) applications of those wishing to be reservists.
“The reservist programme was formed for a good reason but over the years it has deteriorated and misused by many,” ACP Wagambie added.
Superintendent administration Chris Tamari said the directive from Police Commissioner David Manning was clear.
“We cannot go against the directive from the Commissioner.Those not part of a memorandum of understand or agreement are to return all police-issue items as their work ends today,” he said.

3 comments

  • Very Good. As these are the bunch of lunatics with limited trainings that always terrorize the public impersonating as police officers. A good decision for the people…

  • There is place for police reservists. Call them to uniform on a need basis. They become a problem when they are engaged as regulars.

    There is a story of kanda polis of Wewak or East Sepik that got deployed to the Highlands for NATEL Ops I believe was in 2012. They were engaged for NATEL Ops, on a need basis. They did a fantastic job I heard.

    For me, this is a management issue that wasn’t handled properly over many years.

  • To provide effective policing in the country we might like to look at revisiting arrangements and make appropriate legislation to bring in required police officers from other developed countries like Australia & UK. Previous arrangements with Australian Federal Police was found to be in breach of the existing laws of the country by the Supreme Court. Regretfully those who pushed to disband the arrangement never came up with any alternative to replace the arrangement- obviously they were only interested in money made from taking the matter up in court. Someone out there in-the-know would do well to let PNG know the total legal costs and name the lawyers involved.

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