Border police chief gets tough

By GEORGINA KOREI
THERE are numerous investigations that need to be carried out against police in the border command division, a senior police officer says.
Assistant commissioner of police – border command – Peter Philip said many officers under his command were stepping out of line and they needed to be disciplined for their bad behaviour.
“More internal investigations will be done on police officers with bad behaviour and they will face the full force of law,” he said.
Philip said common offences by policemen under his command were alcohol-related, misuse of police vehicles and brutality.
“Policemen at South Fly and East Sepik have been involved in alcohol-related and misuse of police vehicles while on duty causing police brutality and other offences,” he said.
Philip said some of the policemen have been suspended for breaching chain of command and further internal police investigations are underway for them to be penalised.
“Those who leave their station of duty for other provinces without proper administrative protocol of transfer will be dealt with too,” he added.
Philip said those who were suspended would be off-pay until their cases were reviewed.
“Those policemen who are implicated will be off the payroll for an indefinite period, suspended and will be dealt with by the Criminal Law and Police Act,” he said.
Philip said most of the public in the border provinces called him directly concerning bad conduct of policemen under his command.
“Maybe the PPCs are not doing their jobs,” he said.
Philip is travelling to Daru today to deal with issues of police lawlessness and other issues like crowded police cell blocks and the illegal migrants from Indonesia.