NCD Deputy City Manager Honk Kiap says many people do not take time to look at issues as to why police react in a negative way.
While he does not condone actions by some police officers, there are some very important issues that the government and other responsible authorities need to look at in terms of adequately addressing the issue of police brutality.
Kiap outlines that police have a lot to deal with in terms of their attitudes and the type of homes that they come from.
Police are defeated in mindset because of the type of living conditions that they come. Kiap said most of officers were living in condemned run-down houses and rooms with some having nowhere to go but to live with their relatives in conditions not fit for human living.
He says the housing issue being faced by the police force are seeing officers take refuge in settlements and are expected to perform. This causes stress that pushes them over the edge.
Kiap says that police personnel are not living in properly maintained homes, and their pay may not be adequate to their lifestyle.
He says that these issues lead to frustrations that may be pent up and then translated to the way that police conduct themselves while on duty.
The police hierarchy and the Government needs to address the source of this problems so that the police officer will be in the right state of mind to carry out his or her duties well.
Kiap adds that all this talk of Modernisation of the Force, while good will do nothing if it cannot translate to the modernisation of the mindset of policemen and women and how it is affected by their lives at home when not on duty.
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