Cops addressing shortage

INTERNAL Security Minister Peter Tsiamalili Jr says the Royal PNG Constabulary (RPNGC) has been working to address the shortfall in manpower.
He said currently all provinces needed more police manpower.
Tsiamalili said police were in the process of recruiting more police officers.
“From the recruitment process, we had almost 38,000 people apply for 500 positions within the RPNGC,” Tsiamalili explained.
“So far, we have started shortlisting and we assure the public that while we have very limited infrastructure to cater for more police personnel, we plan to expand our training centres.”
Tsiamalili said the RPNGC recruitment process would finish in two months’ time.
Tsiamalili was responding to Milne Bay Governor Gordon Wesley’s questions without notice on the lawlessness in his province and the issues of police manpower and resources.
Gordon said the provincial government was also doing awareness, reaching out to the young people to lay down their arms and return to their families.
“We are calling on Tsiamalili and Police Commissioner David Manning to look into the present issues,” he added.
Tsiamalili said although police manpower had been a challenge, the RPNGC would use the recruitment process to distribute manpower equally to all provinces once completed.