Minister of Interior Sar Kheng said that national police personnel are essential to developing the justice system in Cambodia, from the top to bottom ranks, thus it is required that they perform their duties with excellence to maintain the honour and dignity of the force.

Sar Kheng made the remarks on June 30 while he was meeting with police trainees at the police primary professional training course held at the National Police School’s region III in Kampong Speu province.

The Ministry of Interior said that Kheng had thanked officials at the Police Academy, the National Police, General Departments and other entities under the Ministry of Interior for jointly trying to accomplish one goal, that is to gain public trust on the police.

“Police officers must be there to help people in order to eliminate fear of the police by the public. We must change the public’s attitude to create a culture that loves and trusts the police, who are actually there to serve them. Police officers must see themselves as guardians of the people whom they are there to protect and serve,” Sar Kheng said.

Viek Sopheap, director of the National Police School for region III said that his academy had trained new 6,637 police officers – including nearly 500 women – from Kampong Speu, Preah Sihanouk, Takeo, Kampot, Kep and Koh Kong.

This year, the police training programme has started training its second class of the 15th generation of graduates with 133 cadets – 20 of them from Takeo and the other 113 from Koh Kong.