New Ireland Provincial Police Commander, Acting Chief Superintendent Felix Nebanat, is adamant to curb issues of Law and Order in the province, through a collaborative approach with the Community.
Since taking office in May this year, Nebanat has been analysing the trend of law and order issues and is calling on civilians to take ownership by being aware of their rights as citizens of this country.
“We all play a major role in contributing towards the maintenance of peace and good order in the community,” he said.
He stressed that the slogan of “securing a safer community in partnership” tagged on police vehicles speaks volumes as indication to this approach.
Due to the challenge of limited manpower, it is only fitting to build a partnership comprising of the people; village councillors, church elders, business owners, youth and women’s groups, provincial and district authorities and other stakeholders to take the lead in securing their own circles of influence. In that manner, it will lessen the load on the Police, who are stretching themselves thin, in order to attend to the number of cases that are escalating during this time of the COVID-19 turmoil.
Nebanat challenged his people to close up the disparity gap between the old and the new generation in terms of respect to the law and the understanding of the systems of court at the village level and the traditional structure.
“We must restore those systems effectively by sourcing the root cause of the weakening of the village court level to the point of dormancy.
“Maintaining peace and good order in society should be of paramount importance to everyone and the way forward in effectively seeing that there has to be a paradigm shift as a personal choice to be a good citizen of this beautiful nation,” he said.
He also called on the New Ireland provincial authorities to revitalize the systems of justice at the village level, to ensure that they have the capacity to effectively solve issues in the community.
He said community leaders must also lead by example in the display of integrity without compromising their ethical values as role model individuals in society.
This call was made due to the rise in petty crime and criminal offence within the last six months as a spill over from the Lovongai issue, and other contributing factors that have spiked law and order issues.