After the success of the festive period operations in the Milne Bay Province, Provincial Police Commander (PPC) Superintendent Peter Barkie is now planning to further strengthen the police operational capability in the province.
Barkie hopes to develop this through increased community engagement through community leadership. Barkie says that this is basically to work extensively with communities.
The PPC believes police alone cannot be able to solve law and order problems in the province and the country, stating exclusively that working in partnership with stakeholders is the way forward in minimizing crime, as everyone has a part to play in the community.
“We will be working stringently in partnership with the community because we all have a part to play in the community and to look after the people. I will have to do my part but the leaders of the community will also need to do their part.”
Barkie, when speaking of continuing awareness in the province says this year they will be upping the ante with more awareness in the province to promote leadership and other positive behavior. Barkie believes this heavy engagement of awareness is for the people to understand the importance of the role they play in the community.
This is part of a three pronged approach that the PPC will be launching to maintain peace and stability.
“As I have mentioned earlier, we are looking to develop our operational capability, secondly, increase our awareness programs and promote leadership at the community level and third, we will be looking to restructure our police force to cater for the whole of the province.”
This year, Barkie said he intends to increase the number of the police force in Milne Bay, by restructuring police in the province to create more positions to strengthen the force. This will be done to cater for the large population, not only on the mainland but also on the islands in the outer areas of the province.
Being the largest maritime province in the country, Barkie said it was always a challenge to police the whole province due to lack of numbers and logistics, but he hopes this proposed restructure would relieve the province and the people with much needed manpower for law and order.