Police High Council: Fighting corruption take centre stage

The Rwanda National Police High Council (PHC) has resolved to strengthen efforts against graft, illicit drugs and preventing road traffic accidents. These are some of the resolutions reached by the council, which convened Tuesday at the General Headquarters in Kacyiru. Police High Council is the supreme organ of the police force that convenes quarterly, partly to lay out priorities to be undertaken to further professionalize the force in light of the evolving policing landscape. It was chaired by the Minister of State in charge of Constitutional and Legal Affairs, Evode Uwizeyimana. Present was also the Inspector General of Police (IGP) Dan Munyuza and Deputy IGPs; Juvenal Marizamunda of Administration and Personnel and Felix Namuhoranye in charge of Operations. The Council which also brings together heads of departments and territorial units, regional, district and station commanders, cited emerging security threats such as terrorism and cyber-related crimes that continue to require advanced skills and capacities for officers. It also tackled other aspects related to force discipline and welfare. Minister Uwizeyimana hailed RNP for making important strides in ensuring homeland security and for empowering the citizenry to be active partners in fighting and preventing lawlessness. He emphasized improving areas related to operational capabilities to ensure security remains intact. In light with the recent creation of the Rwanda Investigation Bureau (RIB), the national forensic laboratory, which were curved out of RNP as well as the National Police College (NPC) that will soon be an independent entity and renamed Law Enforcement Academy; the State Minister disclosed that the Ministry will soon propose more legal reforms to empower the force to improve service delivery. Training, discipline, and service delivery are inevitable factors for Police professionalism, the State Minister said, pledging the Government’s continued commitment to supporting and equipping the Force to achieve its mandate. Munyuza reiterated that although a lot has been achieved there is more to be done in the direction of preventing and eliminating crimes. He challenged the officers to aim for quality services to Rwandans and to strengthen the police-partnership for the effectiveness of the community policing ideology. He noted that drug abuse, theft, domestic and gender based violence, smuggling and road accidents continue to be some of the crimes that come at the forefront in operations conducted by the police. Police, IGP said, recovered about Rwf1.5 billion in government revenues from smugglers during the last nine months. Over 1000 road accidents with 351 fatalities were recorded in the same period. On the issue of discipline, the Police Chief said that discipline will remain key among the priorities of the force to tighten the ideology of zero tolerance to corruption. editorial@newtimesrwanda.com

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Police High Council: Fighting corruption take centre stage