Arresting politicians violating COVID-19 protocols has proven problematic, police say

Police spokesperson Bruno Shioso has admitted that arresting politicians holding gatherings despite the ban due to COVID-19 has proven problematic. 

Speaking on Citizen TV’s Monday Report, Shioso acknowledged that the sheer magnitude of some of these rallies has made it difficult for the police to enforce the law.

“When COVID-19 first hit we were very tough on politicians and members of the public. With time and the election period fast approaching, people are gathering in large numbers and there is really not much you can do in such a situation. So we are just trying to be responsive while analyzing the situation. I am not trying to say what they are doing is legal because it isn’t,” Shioso who was appointed sixty days ago explained.

“The Inspector General has been reiterating this and we’ve been issuing press statements but at times the gatherings are just too large and that is a challenge. If a gathering is small enough we will arrest all persons involved,” the police spokesperson added. 

When asked why the police can’t take individual action on politicians holding political rallies, Shioso insisted that arresting individuals and prosecuting them are two different things. 

“If there is a political rally we have to arrest everybody or at least politicians involved and a few members of the public and that is a bit challenging given public interest and where we will detain them. When it comes to policing there is the aspect of crime prevention and law enforcement. 

The first element is crime prevention and this mostly focuses on the public. For their safety, we have told them not to attend the rallies and so has the Ministry of Health but they are still doing so. If we work on the crime prevention aspect no politician will attend these rallies. There is a complicity between members of the public and the politicians who are attending the gatherings,” Shioso said.  

“Police operate on the principal of discretion so we always analyse the situation first, see what we can do and what we can’t do,” he added. 

Shioso similarly insisted that the police force takes its orders from the law and not from political dignitaries as some people imply.

“We don’t work in favour of politicians. We are there for the rule of law and we are supposed to operate fairly and passionately. We assess the risk at any given time. We deploy officers and arm them depending on the risk but we do not favour politicians,” Shioso said