Police target one officer for every 500

The ratio of police to the population currently stands at one officer for every 1,500 people, chief Andrew Rwigamba has revealed Monday. He said the target of Rwanda National Police (RNP) is to have one police officer for every 500 people which is the international standard. The Commissioner General of Police was speaking during a stakeholders meeting at RNP headquarters at Kacyiru, called to review the force’s 2004-2008 strategic plan. He said that the number of police officers was still small largely because of financial constraints. There is a total of 6,253 police officers, 585 of them (9.3 percent) women. Rwigamba said that the largest share of RNP budget goes to salaries, adding that only a very small fraction is used in acquiring equipment for the growing force, as well as training. He said that 2,698 people were recruited into the force in the last four years, while a total of 377 cadet officers graduated as junior officers in the same period. Rwigamba also revealed that the overall crime rate in the country had fallen by 12% in 2007. He added that the basic police training school has a serious shortage of dormitories, classes, kitchen and dining facilities because the infrastructures in place are semi permanent and dilapidated. He continued that as part of regional and international cooperation programmes, more officers are needed to be trained as monitors in Peace Support and Peacekeeping Operations (PSO/PKO). The police chief listed police units which need urgent attention as the marine, anti-terrorism, fire and canine brigades, domestic and gender-based violence as well as child protection desk. Specialized training has been received by a small numbers of our personnel, but more is still needed especially in the specialized units, Rwigamba said adding that there was need for more equipment for Kigali Forensic Laboratory (KFK), which also needs renovation.Ends