ZRP phasing out spikes after they were banned by the government

The Zimbabwe Republic Police has been ordered to stop using metal spikes as a means of stopping motorists and been instructed to use electronic technology to deal with road traffic violations. This comes after President Mugabe criticised traffic police officers for extorting motorists and for being a danger to the public while speaking at the burial of national heroes Maud Muzenda and George Rutanhire at the National Heroes Acre. Spikes will now only be used in exceptional situations according to the government.

Minister of Home Affairs, Ignatius Chombo said:

Police no longer use spikes to stop vehicles. Spikes are only used when there are reasonable grounds to stop a suspect who would have evaded a police roadblock or an order by a law officer to stop.

This means that not every officer you come across on the roads will have spikes.

What police are doing now is that when a motorist refuses to stop when ordered to do so, the officers will alert the next roadblock and this is where spikes can be used because the driver would have refused to stop and there is reasonable grounds to believe that they may have committed a crime.

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…Spikes will only be used to deal with trouble-makers who refuse to comply with orders to stop.

…In the past we used to have our police armed with guns during patrols but now things have changed. Guns are only used when there is reasonable grounds that the suspect could be a dangerous criminal.

More: Sunday Mail