ABOUT POLICING IN ZAMBIA: THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE UGLY
By Sean Tembo – PeP President
1. The manner in which policing has been done in Zambia has undergone several transformations ever since we got our independence in 1964. However, some of the bad habits appear to have lingered on until this day. It must be remembered that the Zambia Police Force, as it was known then, inherited its policing tactics, customs and traditions from the colonial Rhodesian Police, whose main purpose was to protect the lives and property of the then white colonialists, from the aggression of black inhabitants. That meant that the relationship between the police and the masses that were being policed was a non-compromising one with no room for dialogue, but only brutal force. The white colonialists figured that that was the only way that they could decisively deal with the black inhabitants. Of course there was a large element of panic in the formulation of these policing tactics, given that the white colonialists where in the minority compared to the black inhabitants, and although a significant number of black folks did work for the Police then, they could not be entirely trusted as their allegiance between the white colonialists and their fellow black inhabitants was always questioned.
2. After we got our independence, some efforts were made to try and reform the Zambia Police Force, but such efforts were largely not significant enough to have any impact. This was largely because the then KK administration embraced the brutal policing tactics of the Zambia Police Force as a tool for enforcing the one-party state and dealing with any dissent. During those times, suspects were openly beaten at police stations and it was not uncommon to visit a police station and hear cries of a suspect being panelbeaten, while business was going on as usual at the station, with everyone indifferent to the cries as though it did not mean anything. During that time, a police officer was an extremely powerful individual whose actions were not to be questioned by anyone.
3. Fast forward to the Chiluba administration, we saw some positive reforms which FTJ agreed to implement in terms of policing in Zambia. Among other things, we saw our police change its name from the Zambia Police Force to Zambia Police Service. This was ostensibly done in order to emphasize the need for dialogue between the police and the masses which they policed. During this time, we also saw a reduction in blatant torture of suspects at police stations. Not that the torture stopped, but it was now being done more discreetly at some sound-proof room of a police station were the cries of the suspect were muffled. In its own eerie way, this was some progress. During the 90s, we saw several Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) being funded to promote human rights in Zambia. This compelled the Police to establish units such as Victim Support, with specially trained and equipped officers who dealt decisively with husbands who had made it a habit to turn their wives into punch bags every time they came from a drinking spree. Prior to that, the Police were unwilling to intervene when a husband beats his wife as it was seen as a routine way of enforcing discipline. Perhaps the pinnacle of the transformation in the relationship between the Zambia Police and the masses happened sometime in 1994 when a renowned human rights activist by the name of Lucy Sichone was slapped by a police officer during a protest and she slapped him back, arguing that the officer had no right to slap her! That woman was a real man indeed.
4. During the time that l served in the Zambia Police Service, there were a number of issues that l felt were not consistent with modern policing. One of them was an issue of accountability of the actions of individual police officers. Up until now, we do not have an independent wing of the Zambia Police that can investigate and prosecute ailing police officers. The Police Public Complaints Authority that was established by Act No. 18 of 2016 lacks any investigative capacity. In cases of alleged wrongdoing by a police officer, PPCA relies on other police officers to investigate such wrongdoing and furnish them with a report. However, the idea of a police officer investigating a fellow police officer simply never works. For starters, there is an element of feeling pity for your fellow police officer and you start imagining yourself in his shoes. Secondly, the way the Zambia Police works is that officers are often rotated within the division or across divisions such that by the time an officer serves 20 years, they would have known or heard of almost each and every senior officer. Everywhere formation that an officer is deployed to, they make friends and acquaintances. So when you send a police officer to investigate another police officer, it just never works because the investigator and the investigatee will directly or indirectly know each other, thereby rendering the investigation kaput. Also, the expectation that a senior officer such as an Officer in Charge will enforce discipline and order is flawed because with the passage of time, they become like a family with the OIC being an uncle who knows all his officers and their weaknesses, including the ones that report for work drunk. While l was in the Police Service, l remember passing by a station in the outskirts of town and finding a duty officer alone and fast asleep on the floor drunk, while the radio was crackling unmonitored and the Alpha Kilo was lying by itself behind the counter. I call the CIO who lived behind the station and he relives the officer and deploys another one but a day later, you find the same drunk officer back on duty with no action taken against them. In order to instill discipline and reduce criminality in the service, there is need for an independent police investigation wing the way that South Africa has IPID (Independent Police Investigative Directorate).
5. The other issue that l noted with concern while l served as a Police Officer, with my last rank being Assistant Superintendent, was the casual manner in which crime scenes were handled, which l believe is still the case today. You have a situation whereby a unit of the Flying Squad will gun down some suspected “criminals” and then the same officer who did the shooting immediately pick up the body or bodies of the suspects and take them directly to the mortuary. No other squad or unit of the Police visits the scene to determine whether the shooting was justified. This lack of accountability resulted in most officers under Flying Squad abusing their powers by gunning down suspects in circumstances that were not justified.
There were stories of some suspects being retrieved from holding cells in the middle of the night to go and do “recoveries” of stolen goods, only for them not to show up ever again but end up in the mortuary with a short report that they were trying to escape lawful custody while doing recoveries. Am told that these extra-judicial killings went on for decades and became more of a tradition. Generally, suspects would literally cry and hold-onto burglar bars when they were being retrieved from holding cells at night, to go for “recoveries”. You cannot have a situation whereby the officers that are involved in a shooting are the same ones who immediately pick up the bodies and dump them at the mortuary with no one else ever visiting the scene! However, it appears that of late some semblance of accountability is beginning to creep into the Zambia Police Service in terms of how the Flying Squads operate across the country. I was happy to read a news item in the papers about a year ago of how three detectives under Flying Squad in Muchinga or Northern division were charged with murder after they gunned down some suspects whom they had taken for recoveries. An investigation revealed that the suspects were shot in cold blood. In the back of my mind, l was thinking that there has to be more of these type of investigations especially in large cities such as Lusaka.
6. The third issue that l noted while l served in the Zambia Police was how militarized the service was. It appears that every officer has an Alpha Kilo. Even detectives, when they are following up an investigation in the field, they carry an Alpha Kilo, which is obviously very intimidating to potential witnesses that might want to volunteer information to the police. Ideally, given that police detectives have to work closely with the community, which is often gun-averse, the expectation is that they would carry side arms which are nicely covered by a jacket. You cannot walk into a community carrying AK47s and expect the people to relate with you and give you the information that you need. Then you have these so-called Crack Squad which is supposed to be a rapid deployment force and drive around carrying machine guns and look like commandos. It must be noted that in Zambia we currently do not have a problem of terrorism. In most instances when rapid deployment of the police is needed, the problem is usually civil disobedience in the form of protests or riots. Therefore, one would expect the rapid deployment force in the Police to be one that is equipped crowd-control tools and training, and not one that is armed with machine guns. Like the saying goes; if a hammer is the only tool that you have, you will see every problem as a nail. What would the Crack Squad do to a crowd that is throwing stones at them and the only thing that they have in their hands are machine guns? Has the Police Command ever asked themselves that question? This explains why Frank Mugala was shot dead during the gassing riots in Kabanana, as well as several other victims of unnecessary police shootings.
A perfect example perhaps of police having the wrong tools for the job is that incident in 2018 during the Sesheke by-election when the Crack Squad and their machine-guns where deployed to Sesheke and they had to disperse a crowd that the Police claimed was on the route of President Lungu’s entourage. The Police decided to start firing their machine guns over the heads of people. It is just a stroke of luck that no one was killed or injured during that incident because when you discharge a round from a high-powered rifle, it can go for as far as 4km, and it will keep on descending until it hits the ground. It remind me of a neighbor, way back in the days, who decided to fire his rifle in the air during new year’s countdown, instead of fireworks. One of the descending rounds hit a 12 year old boy who died on the spot. The neighbor served 8 years for manslaughter. The bottom line is that any responsible person, let alone the Zambia Police Service, should not be firing live rounds in areas where there are people, regardless of the direction in which you point your firearm. The only place that Police Officers should be overzealously discharging their weapons is a firing range, because it is safe and secure. Not among the people.
7. It is my considered view that we need a total reform in the manner that public policing is done in Zambia. We have of course made some strides since independence, but it is not enough. The starting point is to ensure that the Police Command is occupied by men and women who are properly qualified for the job and who are abreast to modern policing methods. Not individuals who don’t see anything wrong with sending a Crack Squad that is armed with machine guns to go and control a crowd that is throwing stones. We need men and women who understand criminal justice and will not allow a group of police officers under the banner of Flying Squad to slaughter suspects, load them up in their Landcruiser and offload them at UTH mortuary with no investigation of the circumstances of the shootings. Human life is sacred and it should only be taken away by the State in extremely rare circumstances. And even when those rare circumstances arise, there has to be proper accountability to prevent abuse.
I submit.
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SET 27.12.2020