16 Mar 2015

One could draw from inferences of innumerable cases he cited that being a police officer is not an easy go take job. 

Some police officers aptitude of thinking end up being depreciated. Indeed there were no uncertainties in the prelude of the conversation, being a police officer is a challenging occupation. In an interview Constable Mothusi Kelotshegetse spoke with an unwavering voice about his experiences in the police service.  

He ranks among countless cases, the death of a person as the greatest challenge to him. “It does not matter how the person died, death on its own is not something that one can get used to,” he said.

The profession is clouded by challenges that one has to accept to leave with the rest of life. His face expresses grief explaining a case which he considers the worse he has ever encountered, as his mind keeps on remembering it. 

The incident he says was a fatal accident where two people died. What hurt him most was a young girl who waved her hand lying down as if she was saying “I’m dying please help, I’m dying.” Constable Kelotshegetse still remembers the young girl, though she did not die, the whole scenario traumatised him. 

Police officers deal with extreme fatal cases like people trapped in cars during accidents, where body parts got scattered all over, murders, throwing of children in pit latrines, rape, abortion and suicide where the body had decomposed. “Yes, one can leave home cheerful and come after hours depressed,” he said.

Constable Kelotshegetse says however police officers undergo thorough counseling during training to dispel emotions of trauma and to give them bravery spirit. Station Commander for Gaborone West Police Station Superintendent Agreement Mapeu concurs with Constable Kelotshegetse that challenges are unavoidable in the policing career. 

Dealing with dangerous criminals is another challenging incident, but as people responsible for maintaining peace and order, they have regulations that empower them to carry firearms and ammunition to use in any dangerous situation.

He says each situation is treated according to its own merit, adding that as the Police service they believe the doctor has to confirm the cause of any death.  “But if the body is decomposed and parents, relative, District Commissioner agree on the same concept as being the cause of death, the person can be buried in the same area. 

If there are some suspicions, then pathologists can be called to determine the cause of death,” he said. Today’s police service is technologically advanced as it engages various professionals. 

Superintendent Mapeu says specialists like pathologists conduct a post mortem to certify the cause of death, unlike in the historic days of police service when there was scarcity of professionals making it problematic for certain duties to be performed.

“A Police station is indeed a place of refuge.  Some people come crying, severely wounded, people arrive here naked,” he says.  Police officers take people involved in accidents to hospitals, checking them; informing relatives of those involved in accident and provide counseling.

“The incident of seeing people grieved after identifying their relatives at the hospitals calls for bravery on the part of police officers because they have to console them,” Superintendent Mapeu says.

After that the minds of the concerned officers must shift from the accident in order to continue the daily chores. “We are people, we can be emotionally affected, I however reiterate, our police officer undergo thorough counseling,” he says.     

He narrates a case where by he took almost two weeks without eating meat after attending a case where a person was raped and cut into two parts with a sharp instrument. Though the incident happened long back, it remains as a scar in his mind.

Superintendent Mapeu says every Wednesday they meet to talk about their general welfare, encourage and counsel one another.   He says that almost every day police officers meet challenges and stresses that but at the end of the day they end up being used to their job. 

For his part retired police officer Mr Jackson Laba says he is always disturbed by stories that some police officers get involved in crime instead of curbing it.   Having joined the profession in 1962 while the country was still under British protectorate, “we highly esteemed the law. 

Being a police officer meant to hate evil.” Having served the police service for 40 years and retired in 2003, he is planting back his experience in the society and still sees himself as a police officer. “I can arrest a person;” he says unwaveringly. 

He is the chairman of Crime Prevention Cluster at Phase 4. Mr Laba says during their early policing days they even used mule carts to carry corpses.   “One vehicle will be serving a district, in other areas we used camels,” he says.

He recalls an incident where he tracked with a bicycle cattle stolen from Semolale in to the then Rhodesia in 1964.   He advises the current police officers not be scared of the challenge since the police service is highly developed.

 “They have good transport, good communication assets. Today they use motorbikes, horses and we did not have cell phones, firearms and air crafts,” he says. Mr Laba appeals to the present leaders of the police service to institute an organisation of the retired police officers saying they can learn a lot from them.

Like in many other professions police officers face challenges which they have to live with in order for the society enjoy peace and tranquility. ENDS