Minister hopes to improve policing with ‘new’ commissioner

Police Minister Bryan Kramer hopes to work with the new Police Commissioner “whoever he may be” to improve policing in the country.
Kramer clarified that the decision to appoint a new police commissioner was not his.
“Cabinet makes the decision, the Police Minister will give in a submission after consultation and then Cabinet will decide on whether to appoint the person I recommended or not,” Kramer said.
“My focus will be to understand the hierarchy and the challenges they face as I am aware that police politics is 10 times worse than the politics in Parliament,” he said.
Kramer said he would also be working on separating police from politics.
“Year after year, there has always been political interference in police.
“Every new government, appoints a new minister, and every new minister appoints a new police commissioner.
“And that is why, now is the time to isolate politics from the police force,” he said.
Kramer, who is a former police reservist, said he had worked in a police station and knew that it was not an easy job.
“But I am looking forward to meeting with the police commissioner, the deputy commissioners and senior officers to improve policing in the country.”
Kramer added that making Papua New Guineans feel safe was his priority. “As a minister, I have no powers to interfere with the force, my duty is making policies and working with good officers in the force to improve policing in the country,” Kramer said.
“Many fear police more than they fear rascals, so I will be working on improving that,” he said.
“I will also be looking at improving policing in terms of logistics, funding, programmes and partnerships.”
Kramer also said police officers must be reminded that they received a fortnight’s pay which came from the people they were supposed to serve.
“So police officers will not be following politicians and foreign businesses around,” he said.
Kramer also said they would also be looking at the qualifications of police officers.
“There are certain criteria processes to qualify a person to become a police officer so I will be looking at that too, to see who does not belong in the force.”