Tonga Police continues to strengthen partnership with the community Featured
Acting Chief Inspector Manoa Sili with Faleloa Primary School students
21 August, 2020. Tonga Police continues to strengthen its partnership with the community, by rolling out an awareness and education campaign as well as an onsite assessment of the Community Patrol Volunteer all throughout Tonga.
Led by A/Chief Inspector Manoa Sili and the Crime Prevention Group they visited the Community Patrol Posts all through-out Tongatapu and the outer Islands as well as Secondary Schools and Youth Groups.
In Tongatapu there are a total of 166 Community Bases, 33 bases in Vava’u, 16 in Ha’apai and 15 in ‘Eua. A total of over 2,000 Community Patrol Volunteers.
The Onsite Assessment includes training relating to the Community Patrol Volunteers Role, Protection Order and Law and Order. They also conducted training and raising awareness at Secondary Schools and Youth Groups on Bullying and Drugs and Alcohol Awareness.
Issues that are of concerns to the communities and were mostly raised during these visits are the existence of drugs and the impact it has on their children and youths, the issue of alcohol related crimes as well as the issue of bullying in Schools as well as Social Media bullying.
The importance of a strong relationship of mutual trust between police officers and the Community Patrol Volunteers was also raised. The communities are willing to help and work together with the police through the Community Patrol Volunteers to address the issues arises from within their own communities. Communities also welcome and appreciate it when police officers are also involved within these community activities.
“The role of the Community Patrol Volunteers is a very important one, where they work together with the Police to address community safety and crime prevention issues in the community. As a community, we need to work together to ensure the safety of everyone. One way to improve this community partnership is allowing communities to take ownership of existing security issues and working together to come up with viable solutions,” says A/Deputy Commissioner Tevita Vailea.
“We all have a role to play in reducing crime – If we all do our bit to watch out for our neighbours and for each other and report suspicious activity we can make a big difference and significantly reduce the number of victims of crime in our community while holding offenders to account.”
