ZRP And HIT Strike Partnership To Lower Crime Rates

Zimbabwe’s police force (ZRP) has come to an agreement with the Harare Institute of Technology (HIT) to develop staff and enable the police force to deal with crime more efficiently using technology. Apart from staff development, the agreement signed last week will also factor in some software.

The Deputy Commissioner-General, Stephen Mutambi expressed worry over criminals adopting technology:

Quite worrisome though, is the fact that criminals are also taking the opportunity to manipulate advances in technology to broaden broaden and perpetuate their criminal enterprise and sophistry.

In this regard, I would like to express my profound gratitude to HIT for partnering the ZRP in the research and development of technologies that are aimed at enhancing ZRP’s capacity to fight crime.

What’s the software for?

According to Mr Mutambi, the software ZRP is getting will help in the following areas:

• Scenes of crime
• Central Criminal Bureau
• Central Firearms Registry
• Forensic Science Laboratory
• Central Intelligence Unit
• Criminal Records Office
• Foreigners Identification Bureau

The fact that the ZRP is seeking external help to address their lack of technological proficiency comes as no surprise as they basically admitted they can’t deal with cybercrime in any capacity just last year. Superintendent of the ZRPs General Crime Division Amos Tavaziva said;

Use of plastic money to ease liquidity challenges has also come with its fair share of challenges as cyber-crimes have also increased in the country.

We need modern equipment and expertise to help us in gathering evidence.

We have to rely on service providers via court orders. This is a new crime trend for the police, the judiciary and the prosecution.

There is a need for training. Yes, we have convictions buts not as much as you would want to hear.

This is an interesting partnership and hopefully, it will put an end to the surge of card cloning and other cyber crimes that most citizens are helpless against.