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Yes, these road-side chats are suspicious
2006-12-31 08:54:58
By Editor
In the recent postmortem of how the fourth phase government fared during its first year of governance, public safety and security was one of the areas in which its performance was ticked off as satisfactory.
By-products of an administratively restructured, technically empowered and morale boosted police force include the disruption and weakening of syndicates and networks of financiers and planners and field men and women who carry them out.
Others are intensified of criminal activities and extended patrols, availing of telephone numbers of key officers to the public, for facilitating tip-offs and complaints, and officers given to ethical breaches being kept on their toes, for fear of sanctions that include dismissal.
But just like cancer cannot be cured, crime and petty offences cannot be eliminated absolutely. The relief, though, lies in its reduction to as low levels as possible, which our police force is determined to do.
The motor traffic system is a component of the broader law enforcement sphere and is thus inescapably covered by those considerations.
We accordingly concur with the recent directive by the Minister for Public Safety and Security, Mr. Bakari Mwapachu, prohibiting traffic police officers to hold road-side discussions with motorists presumed to be offenders.
The intentions of some officers may be genuine. By pulling motorists to the sidelines, they may simply wish to spare them, as adults, the indignity of dressing them down within hearing range of passengers who may include children.
But since the road-side encounters also provide convenient cover for corrupt dealings, it is only proper that they be avoided altogether.
In any case, traffic police officers don’t (aren’t mandated to) slap or handcuff presumed offenders, which would amount to humiliation.
Querying a motorist on why, or informing him or her about an expired insurance cover , ignoring a red STOP light, and worn-out tyres, cannot possibly erode the integrity of a driver in the estimation of passengers and passers-by.
So, really, the road-side chats are uncalled for.
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