Police on skates will soon be rolling after petty criminals

Police officers will now roll on skates like children on a Sunday afternoon outing, but not for the fun of it — they will be chasing criminals.

On Thursday 3,221 Administration Police officers graduated from Embakasi training school. Among them is a specialised team that will undergo further training on how to roll on skates in pursuit of petty thieves.

The team demonstrated its skills to President Kenyatta, who was the chief guest during the graduation ceremony.

By December, the unit will be patrolling the streets on skates, a tactic AP spokesman Masoud Munyi says will scare muggers, pickpockets and car mirror thieves off the streets.

Mr Munyi told the Saturday Nation Friday that this was one of the innovations police were adopting to keep up with changes in society.

“In Nairobi for example, skates are fast becoming fashionable. As much as most youth have good intentions, you cannot rule out instances where they may take advantage of their mobility to commit crimes,” he said.

It is now common on Sundays to see youths zooming around town on roller skates, but this harmless pastime has not been lost on criminals.

In September last year, two women, Ms Jane Wangari Mwangi and Ms Emily Shanize, were charged with attempting to abduct a one-year-old boy.

The boy’s mother had taken her daughter for skating lessons at a city parking lot when the women, pretending to push him around the parking lot in his pram, allegedly tried to make off with him. The attempt was foiled after the mother raised the alarm.

Mr Munyi said the police on skates would patrol tarmacked areas, alleys and crowded places like bus stops where muggings and pick-pocketing are common.

“People who snatch handbags and vehicle side mirrors take advantage of the police’s reluctance to use firearms in crowded places. We want to adopt roller skating as one of our crime fighting tactics as officers’ mobility is enhanced and they are able to respond quickly to incidents,” he said.

The unit will complement a new security programme Nairobi Governor Evans Kidero will implement in the next one year.

The Nairobi City Inspectorate is setting up a dog unit to patrol bus stops. Already 20 dogs have been bought locally and from South Africa at a cost of Sh100,000 each, according to county transport executive Evans Ondieki.

Dr Kidero’s security plan also includes the installation of surveillance cameras in the city capable of capturing clear images of vehicles breaking traffic laws.

The plan also envisages working with the national government to turn the City Inspectorate into a metropolitan police unit.

The police on skates concept is not entirely new.

In Dubai, police started using skates in 2005 after cases of muggings and petty theft rose.

The Dubai police realised skates allowed officers to reach spots where cars could not go.

The Dubai plan, which complemented patrols on motorbikes, helped reduce crime by about 30 per cent.

And as in Dubai, police in Nairobi say they will introduce the skate patrols in the capital first and replicate the same countrywide later.

But there will be challenges — Nairobi’s potholed roads, muddy alleys, open manholes and leaking sewers will pose a big danger to the officers on skates.