Women lead Bialla post – The National

Biala police station acting commander Sgt Leonie Yanson (second left), Kimbe police station commander Sgt Oena Afeke (third left), New Guinea Islands Assistant Commissioner of Police Perou N’dranou (third right), West New Britain police commander Chief Superintendent Inspector John Yara (right) and other female police officers in front of the police station.

By YVONNE KAMBIBEL
DESPITE challenges, women in the police force have stood firm beside their male counterparts ensuring that law and order is maintained at all times, a senior female officer says.
Biala police station acting commander (PSC) Sgt Leonie Yanson told The National that most of the police officers at the station were women.
“Of the total 11 police officials at the station, six are women,” she said.
“Policing is a male-dominated job and as females, we get discouraged and challenged even to the extreme of being removed from our respective posts at the station.
“We don’t let those challenges weigh us down but we perform our duties with honour and have earned the peoples’ trust.”
Yanson, who had served in the force for over 30 years, said she took up her post in Biala in 2008 as the officer-in-charge of traffic but was now tackling two leadership responsibilities also as the acting PSC.
“Many of my female colleagues joined after me and have performed to earn their respective positions as heads of the criminal investigation division (CID) and prosecutors.”
Yanson said for the people of Biala, seeing a women in blue at the station was now common and many especially women trusted and went to them for help.
“We do not sit and wait for our male counterparts.”
“Female officers do most of the arresting in a day even of those suspects of high profile murder cases and have built an excellent record in that regard over the years,” she said.