Lae Metropolitan Police have commended the Lae MP and his administration for allocating them new police vehicles.
Metropolitan superintendent, Anthony Wagambie Jnr, said this is the first-of-its-kind to Lae Police from a Member of Parliament.
Of the three ten seaters, one has been allocated to the brand new Malahang Police Station whilst the other two to Sector Response Units 102 and 103.
The Sector Response Unit, which is just over a year old now, has four police vehicles; the first two were donated by the ICTSI in partnership with the office of Member for Lae last year.
“The unit still needs an additional six Police uniformed vehicles to adequately cover all the sector patrol zones,” stated Wagambie Jnr.
“Lae Police has implemented strategies in Policing the City through partnership with other stakeholders. The Lae Chamber of Commerce continues to support Police well through its members who have always responded positively to Policing needs.
“I must put on record that they play a very important and vital part in ensuring that Police is supported well in ensuring public safety.
“I have always advocated Police partnership with the community.
“I always believe in the community taking ownership of law and order issues which affect us every day.
“The police emergency toll free number, which has been provided by Digicel PNG, has allowed just that. Members of the public are now assisting Police to report incidents as they happen, allowing Police to act upon real-time information.
“This has seen a marked improvement in Police attendance to incidents as they occur.
“The Sector Response Unit, which is our biggest unit in Lae Metropolitan Command, has now become an integral part of the Lae Metropolitan Command. The SRU is highly depended on for quick response， Police visibility and supporting our suburban police stations and other units.
“I thank the Commissioner of Police and Assistant Commissioner of Northern for supporting me and allowing for the SRU to come to life.
“I thank Digicel PNG, through the Northern Region Manager Brian Malone, for his understanding and giving the opportunity for Lae Police to operate the Police Emergency Toll Free number.”
Wagambie Jnr says they aim to further enhance their policing, hence his push for a proper communication room.
“I would like to see it work as a call centre so that we avoid congested lines during peak periods.
“Our Facebook page and other new concepts will be launched soon to better our capabilities in being connected to the general public.”
New plans to take effect in the coming weeks:
- Lae police are in consultation and going through technical side of things before they launch their police and security radio networking.
“Two identified security firms who have the technical back up and resources will assist Police to be our eyes and ears,” said Wagambie Jnr.
“This will be substituting CCTV which we do not have in Lae City. We will have a separate channel assigned, where it is totally different from our networks. The security firms will only report incidents to their Operations room who in turn report to Police on the separate dedicated channel.
“This will complement the existing Toll Free number so that Police will be able to he informed and attend to any reported incident. It will operate vice versa – Police will also be able to seek assistance from the firms to keep a lookout for wanted subjects.”
- The metropolitan superintendent is hopeful that in the next coming weeks, they will have their first two CCTVs mounted and operated at the main market carpark and bus stop.
“This has been sought by local businesses after I had passed our idea of making Lae market and bus stop safer. It will only be small scale but it is a start. It will be a trial which we plan to improve on if it works out well and extend to other parts of the City.”