Inspector General of Police Kakoma Kanganja says there is gross indiscipline in the police service because erring officers are not given the necessary punishment.

Speaking when he officiated at the Police in-service training at Lilayi College in Lusaka on Thursday, Kanganja observed that police supervisors failed to discipline their subordinates because they lacked knowledge on how to go about it.

“I have observed with dismay, that most supervisors fail to discipline their erring officers, not because they exercise their tolerance or lenience on their subordinates, but probably because they have either forgotten or do not know the procedures to be taken when disciplining officers found wanting. The inclusion of traffic officers in this training is one of the initiatives that deserve commendation. This is so because traffic is one of the sections where we receive a lot of complaints from members of the public, more especially motorists. And this is what compelled my command to reduce the number of road blocks to 14 from initial 81. I hope that this training will help to inculcate our traffic officers with best practices aimed at rebuilding cordial relations with members of the public,” Kanganja said.

He said his command had declared 2018 as a year of restoring discipline in the police service.

“To you the course participants, I wish to advise all of you to apply yourselves fully and take this in-service training program seriously. Do not allow yourselves to fall prey to misconduct, because my command will not condone any report of indiscipline during this course. Always remember that you are serving officers whose behavior is supposed to be above board. Where you are coming from you hold positions of responsibility and as such I do not expect to hear that you misbehaved, or you are being problematic during the course of training. Mind you my command has declared this year as the year of raising level of discipline in the Zambia Police service. And As such, you are the carriers and implementers of the message contained in this theme,” said Kanganja.