Draw a line, senior cops told

 SENIOR police officers have been told to “draw a line” between themselves and their subordinates to ensure order is maintained in the police force. 

Assistant Commissioner of Police for the Southern region Alfred Reu told the police conference at the PNG Forest Research Institute in Lae last Friday that many problems in the constabulary happened because senior officers were “over-socialising and over-indulging themselves with junior officers”.

“If you do not draw a line then you are compromising your position,” he said.

He said the police modernisation programme was about to change all that and urged police officers to change first.

He said little things such as conducting parades before every shift, doing inspection and monitoring the movement of officers and noting absenteeism could help in the programme.  

ACP Bougainville Thomas Eluh said corruption was one thing police officers must not take part in.

He said police matters must be done according to established command and control structure and no one should take orders from outside.

“We have lost confidence and we have to change,” Eluh said.

“A lot of things can be done without money.”

Eluh said police had become a threat to their own people by holding guns at road blocks and in public places.

“We are not at war. Our actions have become a threat to our own people,” he said.