ACP directs cops to stop compos

POLICE must no longer tolerate or accept compensation payments by offenders to resolve their crimes in East Sepik, a senior police officer says.
Asst Comm of Police (ACP) border command Peter Philip said he had made his stance clear in a directive to police commander Supt Albert Beli and a similar directive would be issued to all the police station commanders in the province.
“No more police negotiations or bel kol for all the serious crimes,” he said.
ACP Philip told The National that he wanted all those who had been arrested and charged for their involvement in any serious crimes such as rape, murder or assault to answer for their crimes in court.
“Police negotiations also referred to as customary negotiations or bel kol was commonly conducted in communities,” he said.
“However, it has come to my attention that the perpetrator always resumes to repeat his crimes,” he said.
ACP Philip said he wanted all perpetrators to go to court so that the law could decide on the appropriate penalties and to also act as a deterrent.
He said there were times that people did not have the funds to settle matters outside of court and that had resulted in many un-resolved cases.
ACP Philip said the last thing he wanted was to have un-resolved cases in communities as this affected peace in the communities.
He said he wanted police commanders to comply with this directive in order to minimise law and order problems in specific districts in the province.
In addition to that, ACP Philip said all police commanders needed to remain in their districts and provide reports to their superiors about law and order issues affecting their districts.