Commanding officers need communication skills, confidence

By MALINDA KALE
POLICE officers in each command need good communication skills to address people in communities to work to address law and order issues, says Jiwaka police commander Senior Insp Kauga Maragil.
Maragil said leaders in respective positions in the commands needed to be good communicators to address people with confidence to gain their trust and get the support needed from communities.
He said this when highlighting major challenges in policing, especially in the Highlands region that had communities involved in tribal fighting, sorcery-related killings, highway robberies, family and sexual violence and alcohol and drug-related issues.
Maragil said manpower in the force was lacking in the commands and therefore they needed to work closely with communities.
“We have officers in the three provinces of the Eastern Command but we need more, currently in Chimbu we have 268 men, 108 in Jiwaka and 273-plus in Western Highlands and we are lacking commission officers,” he said.
“When policemen are sent to the villages to effect arrest, there is a lot of resistance from the community. Therefore, we need to talk with the community so that they have the trust and confidence in us so we can get support from them.”
Maragil said leadership in any organisation was important, and police officers needed proper training to assist divisional commands to conduct policing in the province. He said their vision was to work in partnership with communities because without teamwork, work was done in isolation and nothing achieved.
Commissioner Gari Baki said the presentation was challenging policing in PNG and the need to properly train cadet officers.
Baki said training needed to be continuous rather than cadets completing one training per year and then waiting another two years for another.
He said this was an issue that the department would take on.