Blantyre City to support community policing

Following the election of a new Blantyre Police Station Executive Committee members, Blantyre City Council and Malawi Police Service have pledged to strengthen community policing. The committee is a key structure linking police with communities and it identifies security challenges, mobilises resources and proposes solutions. In his remarks after the election on Tuesday, Blantyre City Council Mayor Isaac Jomo Osman said the council is working to remove children from the streets by providing them with vocational training.

He said: “We have over 50 street-connected children that we have helped to learn other skills. That is why when you go around you will not find them the way they were. But we are still trying.

“We are not saying we have cleaned the town. Some are still in the streets, but we want to remove them all.” On his part, Blantyre Police Station officer-in-charge Davie Louis Chilalire said community support is important for policing success. “The committee will help us mobilise resources and identify security issues in communities,” he said.

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Chilalire said police will intensify patrols and rehabilitate vandalised closed-circuit television (CCTV) cameras in the city. “Fifteen additional cameras will be installed in strategic areas to monitor crime and traffic incidents,” he said. The newly elected Station Executive Committee chairperson Jeremia Kanzota said they will prioritise theft prevention and regulate motorcycles in the city.

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