H-Metro
THE Zimbabwe Republic Police (ZRP) is known for its due diligence and dedication to work when discharging its duties.
Like any other profession, there are bad apples within the force that need to be weeded out.
Of course, some cops have been caught on the wrong side of the law giving a bad name to other hard-working men and women in uniform.
We can be rest assured that we still have police officers who are dedicated to duty and ready to serve the nation.
Therefore, complainants should always trust the police and not doubt their capabilities when they engage them for assistance.
On February 27, we ran a story about a chief executive officer of a funeral parlour who was made to eat humble pie after accusing the force of inefficiency.
He castigated the police for inefficiency after losing his Toyota Quantum worth over US$20 000 to a friend.
After reporting his case, he expected instant results unaware that the police were busy tracking the suspect.
Last week, Kunashe Marufu of Munashe Funeral Services held a Press conference and apologised for his comments following the recovery of the vehicle in Rusape after the suspect was arrested.
His case should be a lesson to complainants to be patient after lodging their complaints with the police.
Complainants should trust the process when they seek assistance from the police.
They should also cooperate to ensure the process is smooth.
We must understand that some cases will always take longer than others to resolve.
Others are almost solved instantly while some may be painstakingly slow as the cops piece together all available evidence.
It’s not wise to report a case and soon after blast the very people you’ve reported to while they’re still working on the case.
It demoralises them and this may result in the case taking longer to resolve.
In cases where complainants suspect that they are not getting the required assistance on time, they should approach the complaints desk and register their dissatisfaction.
There is no need to try and bully the police in their line of work.
We shouldn’t tell them what to do in as much as we don’t want other people to tell us how to do our jobs.
We ought to keep in mind that not all criminals are stupid.
Criminals always try to destroy evidence to avoid being tracked down, and police must be given time and space to piece together information to solve a case.
The latter-day criminal is more sophisticated, which means sophisticated methods must also be adopted in dealing with them.
Patience is a virtue that we must exercise in every facet of life in general.
If only we exercised a little patience, we would avoid falling into certain traps that have proved costly.
Conmen wouldn’t exist as they thrive on people wanting instant gain.
Let’s learn to give the police a reasonable period of time and then criticise them justifiably and not just for the sake of it.
This doesn’t mean we’re justifying police inefficiency though, but simply saying they too should be given the benefit of doubt and then be criticised where it’s warranted.
