…need for police liaison officers to redefine skills
Colleen Chitsa
Masvingo- Zimbabwe Republic Police (ZRP) Acting Officer Commanding Masvingo Province, Assistant Commissioner Fredrick Mbengwa has challenged the Community Relations Liaison Officers (CRLOs) within the force to update their skills through learning new things as a way to meet the demands in modern policing.
Officiating at a refresher course on March 22, 2023 sponsored by Envision Zimbabwe Trust Women Network for CRLOs who were drawn from different operational districts in the province, Ass Com Mbengwa advised the CRLOs to seek knowledge and saturate themselves with wisdom in order to curb crime trends in society.
“The modern policy requires regular updating of skills to keep personnel abreast with ever changing policing landscape. Mediocrity and ignorance has no match to modern criminal sophistry” he said.
Quoting book author Ian Fleming, Ass Com Mbengwa said it is better to have few knowledgeable officers than to have battalions’ who are blind to the demands of their work.
“Learning is a process not an event, a second before death you learn something and when you die you learn something, which means you continue leaning from birth until death.
“Wisdom comes not from age but from education and learning, so we need to continuously learn so that we develop wisdom from the knowledge” he added.
He also reiterated the ZRP’s effort in ensuring gender equality within their rank and file (at the workshop with a total number of 26 CRLOs in which 14 were men and 12 were women).
“The enrolment of a balanced number of males and females signifies efforts by the ZRP to maintain gender equality by ensuring that both men and women have access to some opportunities and rights.
“It is of interest to note that the province is augmenting the implementation of the ZRP women networks full key result areas which are training, development, equal career opportunities, combating sexual gender based violence, noting nation building and social responsibility” added Ass Com Mbengwa.
He added that the organizational thrust’s training is critical because CRLOs are the ZRP brand ambassadors.
“Their strategies must be well taught out and displayed at the highest levels of professionalism hence this workshop is going to enrich them.
“CRLOs, you are our important assets in the organization as well as in the community because you bridge the gap between police officers and the community and I therefore charge you as public relations officers, as gatekeepers of organizational values in order to portray the organization in a favorable light,” he added.
He also said that ZRP is a community based organization that relies on the benevolence of the community and in order to accomplish the goal of reducing crime, the ZRP needs to work hand in hand with the community.
“Just like how the strength of the fish is in the water, our strength as the ZRP is in the community, we need the community to assist us and through its benevolence, we have cracked numerous cases,” added Ass Com Mbengwa.
Chief Superintendent, Press and Public Relations Staff Officer Blessing Chishaka from ZRP head office in Harare said the importance of the workshop was to reshape the skills of the CRLOs in order for them to work well with people in the community.
“The commissioner general of the ZRP approved that we refresh and re-skill our CRLOs in order to enhance their capacity and ability to engage members of the community,” said Chishaka.
