Police records indicate that 2, 459 people died in road accidents in 2017, which is an increase from the previous year\u2019s 2, 343 fatalities.
\nThis is according to statistics announced by Inspector General (IG) of Police, Lexten Kachama, on Sunday night during an end of year party held at police headquarters in Lilongwe.
\nSeven more people died at Elephant Rock in Mzimba District on Sunday.
\nOn the other hand, Kachama observed that there was a 37 percent reduction of road accidents in general.
\n\u201c[The increase in deaths] was attributed to overspeeding [sic] and reckless or inconsiderate driving. I appeal to all traffic officers to give proper and adequate civic education to all road users in 2018. We all need to be extra careful on our roads,\u201d Kachama said.
\nThe police chief further bemoaned the increase in the number of police mobile vehicles involved in road accidents, saying it puts more strain on inadequate vehicles.
\n\u201cThe year was also difficult in terms of public order management. There were violent and unfortunate incidences like mob justice where, for instance, police stations and vehicles were targeted. We lost Chirimba Police Unit and an armoured personnel vehicle at Area 36 in Lilongwe,\u201d he said.
\nOn the other hand, Kachama said he was proud that police managed to reduce the rate of violent crimes by 16 percent, a development which, he said, was possible due to coordination between the law enforcers and the general public.
\nThe IG further said, there was a decrease in murder, robberies and theft of motor vehicle cases because the police had put in place several measures including frequent patrols of different areas and foiling robberies
\n\u201cI wish to caution [police officers] that there is no need to relax in 2018. We have to double our efforts so that we continue fulfilling our obligation of protecting lives and property,\u201d Kachama said.
\nHe also took some time to caution his officers against engaging in corrupt practices which, he said, taint the image of the establishment.
\nWithin the year, cases of defilement of girls also increased by five percent while eight people, who included children, died in a stampede at Bingu National Stadium during the 53rd Independent Day celebrations.
\nWhile incidences of attacks on persons with albinism significantly decreased, there emerged the blood-sucking rumours in some parts of the Southern Region, which resulted in cold-blood killing of nine people suspected to be blood-suckers.
\nMeanwhile, Kachama has also warned police officers against photographing and recording what he calls shameful acts which eventually find themselves on the internet. According to the police chief, this puts the security agency in a tight spot.
\nLast year, videos and pictures of some officers engaged in sexual acts went viral on the internet after apparently being leaked by their lovers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Police records indicate that 2, 459 people died in road accidents in 2017, which is an increase from the previous year\u2019s 2, 343 fatalities. This is according to statistics announced by Inspector General (IG) of Police, Lexten Kachama, on Sunday night during an end of year party held at police headquarters in Lilongwe. Seven more […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":58452,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-58450","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58450","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=58450"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58450\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":58453,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58450\/revisions\/58453"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/58452"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=58450"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=58450"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=58450"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}