Police told not to wear field uniforms in public

National

By TREVOR WAHUNE
National Capital District police are to be restricted from using field uniforms in public areas, says NCD Metropolitan Superintendent Perou N’Dranou.
He told The National that the reason for this was because field uniforms looked too aggressive from the the normal sky blue uniforms that were meant to be used in public areas.
“The use of field informs in public places caused fear among people for the police. In most cases, where police approach the public in their No. 1 uniforms, the people interacted smoothly with police. But when police approached the public in their field uniforms, this is where you see people backing off from police or even running away for no reason,” N’Dranou said.
“Field uniforms are unauthorised for use in public. It is only authorised for use in special operations, in most cases the field uniform is used when there is a state of emergency declared – be it in or outside the city.”
N’Dranou said the field uniforms were originally for mobile squads and the dogs unit. But today the use of field uniforms had become common.
“Field uniforms were also for temporary purposes, especially when we send our men out into rural areas. These uniforms must also have some form of identification to identify that the users are policemen.”