Lautoka City Council CEO Mohammed Anees Khan says the council is working with police to combat drug problem in the city.
Presenting the council’s 2015-2017 annual reports to the Standing Committee on Social Affairs recently, Mr Khan said the council met the police IT department which studied the general drug hotspots and mapped them out on a geographic information system (GIS) map.
Committee member Ioane Naivalurua asked if the council had drug eradication plans.
Mr Khan said police confirmed to the council that suburban drug hotspots had been identified in addition to existing hotspot areas in the city.
“They are in the process of identifying hotspots which are not currently covered by cameras and where we can install additional cameras to monitor and have these areas under surveillance,” he said.
“They know the hotspot areas, and we’ve shared what we have. They will use it to enhance the CCTV camera coverage,
“So, there is only one aspect of it, daily patrols. We have offered two of the council’s infrastructure facilities, one at Shirley Park and one at the Lautoka market as a police post.”
Mr Khan said a third drug hotspot location had been identified and the council intended to establish a mini police post there.
“We have asked police to give an assurance that we will have officers manning it before the council puts in resources to build a mini post.
“So, we are constantly in touch with the stakeholders, meeting with different departments within the police IT and their enforcement to ensure we give our hands and shoulders to the police whenever we need to fight this drug problem.”
