Police work to increase in momentum from August to September - Naivalurua

Minister for Policing Ioane Naivalurua says there will be an increase in the aggression of the police work from August, September and October.

While responding to a question from Opposition MP Virendra Lal on what specific quantifiable targets and public reporting mechanisms have been set for reducing the rates of burglary and drug-related offences in identified red-zone areas by December 2025, Naivalurua says a red zone is basically a term designated to areas where there is an increase in incidents of crime, or the likelihood of a potential increase in that particular area, or it could also be the different types of high-profile incidents that have occurred in that particular place.

He says some red zones include his home Taveuni - which has about four red zones, Ba and Rakiraki.

Naivalurua says the need to change red to green is not the Police role alone as there is great emphasis now on the police to work closely with the community in what they call the Duavata community policing work.

He adds for this particular operation to work, it not only the support of the public, but a very close cooperation between the police and the public through trust and the building of confidence.

The Minister also highlighted that the Police Force is focused on two key areas - a benchmark of 10 percent reduction in overall crime and a 70 percent detection rate for all reported crimes.

Naivalurua says they cannot really put their finger in many occasions to determine the quantifiable aspects of crime because every day the Force issue a daily situation report or the morning reports.

He says the Fiji Police Force does set specific quantifiable targets on crime reduction.

He says with those targets measured across five key crime sectors, aggravated robbery, burglary, rape, robbery, defilement of minors and drugs is another very important part of these five sectors.

On public reporting mechanisms, the Minister says the Police Force has a well-established public reporting mechanism, primarily through its network of 35 police stations and 78 community posts across Fiji.