BY DELISA THWALA
MBABANE – 4234 Forty two thousand three hundred and fourty (42 340) is the number of days being celebrated by The Royal Eswatini Police Service (REPS) this year.
These number of days make up 116 years of police existence which has been characterised with significant growth and advancement in the REPS.
The law enforcement agency which was established in 1907, has grown in leaps and bounds in terms of organisational transformation and development through the guidance of His Majesty King Mswati Ill and the continuous support of His Government.
As a result of these advancements, the Police Service is keeping abreast with what is obtaining in the policing profession both regionally and globally.
National Commissioner of Police Ntsitsibala Dlamini said in terms of the human resource outlay, the organisation had 147 officers when it was established as a Mounted Force compared to over 5000 officers currently serving the Kingdom of Eswatini.
“The increase over the years has been necessitated by the requirement to match the acceptable international benchmark of Police/Public ratio to cope with the ever increasing patterns of crime and meet the expected standards of service delivery that the public demands,” he said.
In addition, he said The Police Training School (PTS) situated in Mbabane which was established in 1927 was upgraded to the Matsapha Police College In May 1965.
It is worth noting that the College was subsequently upgraded into a Police Academy in 2017 and it now offers a Diploma in Police Science Programme.
Having been regarded as a male dominated profession for a long time, the first group of female officers enlisted in 1967 brought the number of police officers to 644.
“For efficiency and professionalism in the execution of its constitutional mandate, the Police Service has over the years established various specialised units to ensure quality on service delivery,”
“These departments include the Domestic Violence, Child Protection and Sexual Offences Unit, Forensic Science Laboratory, Police Clinics, The 999 Emergency Response System, Criminal Investigation Bureau, Police Mechanical Workshop, Bomb Disposal Unit and numerous others. In keeping up with what is obtained in the policing world, the organisation recently adopted the use of drone technology to aid its operations,”he said.
