The Royal Papua New Guinea Constabulary, through Commissioner David Manning, announced that major legislative reforms taking place and reviews are being made to the Police Act to ensure the police are kept up to date in combatting crime in the modern era.
He said the RPNGC is looking at modernizing the Criminal Code to ensure that their goals confront challenges that are being faced in the modern criminal environment.
“We want to ensure that our police act ensures that our force is agile and have the power to protect. We are also looking at bringing in a piece of legislation called the Police Powers and Obligations Act [Bill].”
“This will ensure that the police will have the power to enforce the rule of law and our community can hold our police accountable to the highest standards of police conduct.”
This will also see the introduction of the Domestic Terrorism Bill. He also hinted at certain developments of the purported Domestic Terrorism
“It was announced a couple of weeks back that we are now in the process of recruiting for our tier 1 Counter-Terrorism Unit. That will take some time.”
He said at the earliest, they may be able to assemble an effective unit within two to three months and will be a long-term solution to emerging threats.
Manning said it was timely that the formation of the counter-terrorism unit and the Domestic Terrorism bill both be coupled together to ensure that the RPNGC continues to do their best in identifying, assessing, and eliminating threats.
Although they may still be in the works, the commissioner said they are stepping up in the absence of these two major capabilities and that continuous upskilling of police personnel is slowing reaping benefits for the constabulary.