Police numbers raise concerns

LAE Met Supt Chief Insp Chris Kunyanban has expressed concern over the lopsided ratio of police officers to people in the city.
He said the metropolitan command had about 500 police officers and population was continuing to increase in the city area.
He said the World Health Organisation’s standard ratio was 1: 450 (police officer: people).
World Population Review’s 2020 statistics show a population of 76,000 in Lae city while the city authority estimates between 35,000 and 40,000 people in the Lae Open area alone.
Insp Kunyanban said the population boom in the city area added to other legacy issues and put a strain on the efforts of the metropolitan command to curb crime in PNG’s second largest city.
“We can have between 5,000 and 8,000 people commuting by bus at any given day during peak hours,” Insp Kunyanban said.
“Our foot-beat has fewer than 16 officers who work in shifts trying to maintain order in these busy places.”
He said recruitment had stopped for a while and with some officers retiring and few others being sacked for disciplinary reasons, police numbers were dropping.
“Although this will not hinder us from doing our jobs, we still need officers to maintain our numbers and posts,” he said.
Meanwhile, Insp Kunyanban said artificial intelligence (AI) was a cost-effective method to assist police work in the city.
“AI through CCTV (closed- circuit television) and database collection will fill the human resource gap to do our policing,” he said.
“If the provincial government is serious about reducing crime rate in Lae, it should sit with the police (headquarters) and see the best AI to put in place to reduce crime, maintain peace in the community and to serve the people.”