Well that happened faster than we thought it would..

Just yesterday we published an article about one of at least two websites that had been created by local web developers in order to keep track of the Zimbabwean Republic Police’s new Electronic Traffic Management system , namely the list of red robot runners that the ZRP has been publishing on its social media platforms . Unfortunately, as we had also failed to note, the ZRP had already condemned the information on the website we published yesterday ( https://zrp.netlify.app/) , while another similar website, ( https://zrp-lookup.web.app/) is already offline now. As such, many are left wondering as to why the nation’s police force would rush to blacklist two tools that seem like they were meant to help the average Zimbabwean.

Is the ZRP right to do this?

Well, in some sense, yes, or at least ideally speaking, they have logical reasons to do so. Firstly, despite our own individual thoughts of it, this is still the nation’s police force and primary law enforcement, meaning just like evidence, cases and certain reports are only privy to the public on their terms, the ZRP likely can dictate if they want specific information only shared to the public by them. This may not be the easiest or most convenient way for everyone, but it is their right, especially when one considers the protocols or regulations they also may have to adhere to when it comes to information shared with the public. Now I’m sure there are some of you who may feel differently about this, or know judicial or legal cause as to why this may be changed, but at least for the time being, this is likely the case. This is also without considering that this is essentially data released by a law enforcement agency now being taken and stored on web hosting services that belong to foreign nations, something that most countries in the world now take an issue with, as such, again, the ZRP feeling a certain way about this is mostly understandable, especially if perhaps they (eventually) had their own plans or implementations of such a website being released.

Is this the best way to go about it?

The question other people have talked about however, is whether this is how the ZRP should have handled the issue. After all both websites were clearly made by Zimbabweans who actually think the new system is at the very least interesting and want to make the process of its output data easier to access and read for other Zimbabweans. So shouldn’t the ZRP bring them into the fold rather than condemn their work? Ideally, that should be the case. After all even in the last article we talked about such talent needing to be promoted and nurtured rather than left alone or more likely, left to search for greener pastures in other countries. So while these are regular civilians with no affiliation to the police, them being hired to work as consultants or to work with whichever technology teams our local law enforcement has at its disposal. Maybe that will happen another time. But for now, we can simply take things for what they are.

Now, did anyone figure out where those cameras are?

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