Police officers need better pay

WINDHOEK, 08 NOV  – The salary of police officers need to be improved drastically as well as their performance, Namibian Police Force (NamPol) Inspector-General, Lieutenant-General Sebastian Ndeitunga said on Wednesday.
Ndeitunga, who was speaking at the Police Day Parade in the capital, said they have requested that the salaries of inspectors and the ranks below be improved considerably.
“We know that our country is going through tough economic times but the situation is not unique to Namibia, it is affecting the region and the world. However, when the country is able to improve the salary of the police officers, it should do so, because I am losing officers who are resigning for greener pastures and I do not want to lose officers because they are poorly paid,” said Ndeitunga.
He noted that these groups are the ones who are resigning whilst those in the top ranks hardly resign.
“Danger allowance, flight allowance for our pilots and risk allowance for police officers need to be looked at. There is no crime in talking about how members are feeling,” Ndeitunga said.
The top police official advised members of the police force to perform their duties to best of their ability so that the public may feel they deserve salary improvement.
He also raised concern over some police officers who do not perform their duties, but receive salaries every month and some others who do not carry radio phones nor wear name tags.
“Those who lost their name tags should replace them,” said Ndeitunga, explaining that members of the public are complaining about the behaviour of police officers and the refusal of some to give their names to the community.
“The name tags will eliminate poor service delivery of police officers and minimise complaints from the public. The government allocates a huge budget to the force every year and a large portion goes into salaries, so we must improve on service delivery.”
He said visibility of police need attention too.
“When you drive in town early in the morning around 02h00, you will not see any police – this situation must change. I want to see an improvement in the deployment of resources and better police visibility,” said Ndeitunga.