Divisional Police Commander Viliame Soko

The Fiji Police Force is making headway with its Operation Veitalevi in the Northern Division, according to Divisional Police Commander Viliame Soko.

Soko says the operation is tailor-made for the Northern Division as it is community-based and ensures that community policing is strengthened in the division.

He says geographic location is one of their biggest challenges, and they heavily rely on the partnership with the community to achieve their goals.

“Operation Veitalevi is basically to go back to the community … visit them. So, it is a house-to-house visitation. At the same time, we can get the population because we cannot rely on the data for the past years. The issues, if it is relevant to police … we will deal with it. For other agencies, we direct those issues to them and then we can invite them in the next meeting.”

Soko says they have made progress in the operation, and this is evident in the decrease in criminal activities rates and statistics over the past couple of months.

“We have been forecasting, if you see the data yesterday … that we will continue to see the red in our KPI until the end of this month, but we were surprised after the March operation, there was only one red, and we hope that we can sustain the other greens in this April before we go into May.”

Soko says they would like to maintain the momentum of the operation to control criminal activities, and to ensure security and safety in communities.

He says they also plan to set up a Crime Prevention Committee in the Northern Division, as part of the Duavata Community Policing Framework.

Soko says this is a way in which they can easily highlight and address issues faced in the fight against crime from divisional to national level.

The Divisional Police Commander adds that these initiatives not only ensures security and safety for the people, but also assures economic growth as more investments would pour into these communities.

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