Community policing impacting in rural WHP

RURAL communities involved in tribal warfare in Western Highlands province are taking their stand to fight against lawlessness in their respective communities by undergoing training to become district police officers.
Sgt Susan Mondia of the community policing unit said yesterday that police were currently conducting training for district policing in order to combat law and order at the district level.
She said her team, comprising of three staff, had already conducted training for the Tigi community police in Dei district and in Mapoa in the Baiyer district.
She said in Tigi, local MP Puri Ruing, had boosted the district policing programme with a K1.2 million funding to build a police cell for lawbreakers and a commanders office, as well as staff houses.
Sgt Mondia said the people of Mapoa had also assigned 45 people to become district police in the area.
These people, she said, had been selected from the nine council wards in the area, where one woman and two men were chosen by the people in each council ward.
She said these community police were mostly young men and women who were interested in upholding peace in their communities and was the initiative of the educated elites in the area.
Sgt Mondia said they had also trained law enforcers at the community level in the Nebilyer district to educate them on their roles and those of the police.