Thread by @lilomatic

1/ While we are focusing on drug dealers & peddlers, we should put in the same effort to stop the collaboration between criminals at our bus stops @ some unscrupulous @PoliceZimbabwe officials who look away while travellers are being robbed. #LawEnforcementZW

2/ Zimbabwe’s crime hot spots are bus stops & bus ranks where we catch our long distance buses. The biggest criminals are the touts that take advantage of innocent travellers by insulting, harassing & assaulting these innocent travellers. #LawEnforcementZW

3/ Over the years, the issue of touts has made headlines. On the 3rd of October 2017, Mathias Gore’s family was plunged into mourning, when their breadwinner died after being assaulted by touts while he was trying to board a bus to Mutare en-route to Mozambique near Roadport...

4/... International Terminus in Harare. On 29 March 2021, a video went viral in which a group of touts man handled an elderly woman which led to a public outcry & subsequent arrests of touts countrywide.
Zimbabwe has a mobile penetration rate of 102% meaning we all have ...

5/...access to smartphones & mobile devices that have cameras & video recording capabilities. Technology should help us as citizens including law enforcement officers to stay one step ahead of tout criminals. We should use these devices to record their harassment, abuse & ...

6/...assaults then report them to the relevant authorities. Using smartphone devices that are handy should help Zimbabwe’s prosecutors convict these touting offenders. Since emerging technology is available on all sides of justice, the cat&mouse game between the travelling public

7/...touts & police is never-ending & it requires continous adjustments from law enforcement agencies to introduce new laws that will make touting a criminal offence. In Zimbabwe, touts are not only illegal, but also barbaric in nature. Someone pays them for touting.

8/ It is this system of paying touts that is very wrong. These public transporting companies pay touts a certain percentage for every passenger that enters & travels with their bus, empowering these touts to force passengers to their buses or transporting vehicles.

9/ The good news for public safety is that crime rates have generally decreased over the past two decades, due in part to advancements in crime detection & deterrent technology, like our smartphones & mobile devices. Zimbabwe’s law enforcement should encourage citizens to have...

10/...their smartphones handy to record all acts of crime in their environment & catch these touts in action. Today’s effective policing leans heavily on the rapid sharing of sensitive crime-related information, the recent explosion in information technology is a positive ...

11/...development for law enforcement agencies. Identification technology, social media & mobile capabilities also enhance public safety, enabling justice staff to do their business more efficiently & respond to unfolding investigations in real-time, than ever before.

12/ While technology poses challenges for Zimbabwe’s law enforcement agencies, which continually strive to keep up with technology-based criminal enterprises. Encouraging citizens to record criminal activities enhances the fight against touting crimes.
#LawEnforcementZW

13/ With the advancement of technology, it is now easy for Zimbabwe’s law enforcement agencies to spread information throughout a national criminal justice system that involves the station, district, province & justice administering the policing efforts independently.

14/ Due to lack of technology, it was too often in the past, lack of access to timely information prevented various government departments from coordinating their efforts adequately. Advances in the way government agencies share information & use criminal identification ...

15/...systems have led to tighter connections between different government organizations & the justice departments. Social Media though it is a social trend as much as it is a technological breakthrough, social media furnishes Zimbabwe’s law enforcement with the use of this...

16/...technology effectively. It is now easy to post & identify these touts & apprehend them through the use of whatsApp, Facebook, twitter, etc as a way of attacking touts that commit crimes at bus stops that they operate from. #LawzEnforcementZW

17/ Social media platforms link Zimbabwe’s law enforcement directly to the public at large, so it is a great tool for spreading descriptions, videos & other information about criminals. Communicating in real-time closes the crucial gap between the point at which crimes occur &...

18/...when investigations begin, enabling citizens to respond with timely information.
In Zimbabwe, there is a constant public outcry & deafening calls for the ZRP to expeditiously bring these bus stop touts to book & there is a need for all law enforcement agencies to be ...

19/...visible all the time at bus ranks where touts are becoming a menace to the commuting public. @PoliceZimbabwe should encourage travellers to use their mobile smartphones to record criminal activities that take place as they travel around the country.

20/ It is time for travellers to bring sanity at all bus stops & bus ranks as we travel by reporting and recording all criminal activities by the menacing touts that now control our travelling bus stops. Iwe neni tine basa!