Bulawayo (New Ziana)-Residents should approach their local police commanders to form neighbourhood watch committees to deal with crime in their areas instead of engaging community members to patrol the streets at night, an official has said.
National police spokesperson Assistant Commissioner Paul Nyathi said this during a meeting with media stakeholders at the Ross Camp in Bulawayo on Wednesday.
He was responding to a decision by some residents who wanted to hire unregistered private security companies to patrol their suburbs to thwart criminal activities.
Criminal activities such as drug peddling, vandalism and housebreaking are on the rise in the province and the country as a whole.
In some suburbs, communities are mobilising themselves and contributing at least US$1 per household to pay community members to patrol their neighbourhoods at night.
But Nyathi warned that by doing so, communities were exposing themselves to criminals and would not get any compensation in the event that their property was stolen.
He said community members who were providing private security services should form and register companies and operate within the confines of the law for accountability purposes.
“We are not saying security companies are bad, no! We are saying security companies should be registered. They should operate in accordance with the laws of the country so that whatever they are doing is known. They should be accountable so that if anything happens police will know how to deal with them,” he said.
Nyathi said the proliferation of unregistered security companies in the country was a cause for concern.
“The challenge which we are facing now is that some individuals are just coming up with unregistered security companies and they say we want to patrol a particular street. If a crime happens, where do you go, how do you account for your activities?” he asked.
“We want to set the record straight that as police we are warning some bad elements in the communities who try to set up security companies without registering that they will be arrested.”
He urged residents’ associations to approach the Officers Commanding provinces or district commanders if they had any security concerns so that they could be addressed.
“We have got community policing structures such as neighbourhood watch schemes and crime committees. These can work with residents’ associations to address crime issues,” said Nyathi.
Zimbabwe has been experiencing a rise in criminal activities such as housebreaking, armed robbery, rape and murder over the recent years with commentators largely attributing it to citizens returning from some neighbouring countries where crime rates are high.
The availability and widespread use of the United States dollar in the country compared to others in the region, which use their local currencies, has also been attributed to the rise in crime as many citizens keep large amounts of money in homes.
New Ziana
