The Royal Papua New Guinea Constabulary is looking to conduct a full review with Commissioner of Police, David Manning announcing that a review will be done to assess the performance of police especially in areas concerning the collaboration with the PNG Defense Force.
Following a meeting with both the Minister for Police and the Minister of Defense and Acting Commander of the Defense Force, Commodore Phillip Polewara, the Commissioner stated that a discussion on legacy issues within both forces was the main agenda in which both security forces were looking to address.
This meeting was prompted by the events of the 10th of January, which is seen as an eye opener for some in the country, following the mass looting and arson orchestrated by members of the general public after a protest on pay cuts, mainly by Police and Defense personnel saw millions of kina lost due to damages to business houses.
“We did take note of what had happened on the 10th of this month.”
“That did compel us to review how we work in collaboration to addressing these challenges.”
“We feel that there needs to be a review and that review has been directed as of last week Friday to be conducted of how we work in collaboration.”
Manning added that apart from the defence call out being an expensive exercise, there are some grey areas in between that both forces would like to see ironed out specifically the terms of engagement and engagement protocols once the call out has been executed.
“In the next week or so, we will be reviewing how we collaborate with the Defense Force under call out arrangements or state of emergencies not only to identify vulnerabilities in our joint operations ensuring that when there is a call out, we can be able to execute the task at hand.”
He further announced the active participation of Papua New Guinea Defense Force Personnel as special Constables, which will see the continuation of their involvement following the end of the SoE.