By Delisa Thwala
Complaints against the Police decreased from 11 cases reported in the previous period to eight cases in this reporting period.
These cases are in respect of incidents of alleged unprofessional conduct by Police officers. At least 104 cases of civil suits were reported in this period compared to 98 cases reported in the parallel period last year, showing an increase of 6%.
These civil suits emanate from alleged unlawful arrests and detentions as well as other allegations of unprofessional conduct on the part of the police.
This information is contained in the latest performance report on recurrent and capital expenditure as well as other allied Police administrative and operational activities for the period of April 1, 2024, to June 30, 2024.
The report states that, as an intervention, the Office of the National Commissioner is continuing to roll out programs to instil professionalism as well as expected.
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“The robust disciplinary mechanisms instituted by the Office of the National Commissioner to ensure that the conduct of Police officers is in tandem with the organization’s code of conduct and ethics is bearing fruit. No case of discipline was recorded compared to four cases recorded in the parallel period last year,” reads the report.
Worth mentioning is that, the Royal Eswatini Police Service (REPS) draws its mandate from Section 189 of the Constitution of the Kingdom of Eswatini, Act No.1 of 2005, and the Police Service Act No. 22 of 2018.
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The primary responsibility of the Police Service entails crime prevention and detection, maintenance of law and order, road safety management as well as the strengthening of State Security frameworks.
In further detail, the report mentions that the volume of crime for this reporting period stood at 13 871 when compared to 12 024 cases recorded in the same period last year depicting a percentage increase of 15.36%.
Concerning prioritized and serious crimes, there has been an increase of 2.82%, as reflected in the report.
“Serious crimes that were on the decrease include Armed Robbery (-25%), Murder (-21.4%), Attempted Murder (-13.7%) and Robberies (-12.9%). This decline is as a result of a combination of strategies or programs including visible policing and public education,” reads the report in part.
