Plans are underway to increase the proportion of women in the national police force to 30 per cent as the constitution stipulates, the Minister of Internal Security, Musa Fazil Harelimana, announced yesterday. He disclosed this while speaking to journalists at Green Hills Academy in Nyarutarama, where he officiated at this year’s female police officers’ convention.The second annual event seeks to help female officers lay strategies to help in effective execution of their duties and encourage more women to join the force.Currently, female officers comprise only 19 per cent of the over 10,000 force, up from 14 per cent last year."We hope by the time we celebrate the force’s 14th anniversary, we will have attained this number.” The police force, which was set up in 2000, started with about 3,500 officers after merging three institutions that had a policing mandate at the time, including the Gendarmerie, Communal Police and the Judicial Police. However, none had a female officer."We are glad to say that the turn up of women who want to join the force is high; it’s no longer a problem compared to the past, when they used to think it was only a male domain.” Harelimana challenged the female officers to work with integrity, professionalism and uphold discipline, which he underlined, plays a key role in determining promotions."Regardless of the normal procedures followed during police promotions, female officers can be promoted when they act exemplary,” he told the hundreds of female officers, who turned up for the event.The Inspector General of Police, Emmanuel Gasana, said the Police Council had agreed to deploy married female officers to their respective home areas.The council is the supreme organ of the national police that brings together heads of units, directors of various departments, district and regional heads and other senior officers in the force.Gasana emphasised that the government, in general, was committed to supporting female officers effectively participate in the force’s activities.Rwanda has over 100 female police officers serving in the African Union-United Nations Mission in Darfur (UNAMID), the highest single female peacekeeping contingent worldwide.The Director of Community Policing, Inspector Linda Nkuranga, welcomed the move to deploy female officers in their home areas, saying it was formerly a key challenge.  "This convention helps us to further devise means of supporting ourselves, both in welfare and how effectively we can develop our profession by encouraging other women to join the force,” said Nkuranga.  "We have a female police network and focal points at all DPUs in the country, which helps us identify problems that might affect our work and ensure that we participate in all activities.”