Alarm at high rate of criminality in South African Police Service
January 26 2015 at 10:57am By Carlo Petersen
Cape Town - Four years after a research report exposed alarming criminality
within police ranks, fresh evidence from the South African Institute of Race
Relations (SAIRR) shows that nothing much has changed.
The SAIRR risk analysis unit’s
findings, which highlight criminal officers’ involvement in serious and violent
crime, is set to be released in a research paper titled Broken Blue Line Two on
Wednesday.
The Cape Times obtained an unedited draft copy on Sunday of the new report that details 100 crimes, including rapes and murders allegedly carried out by police officers from April 2011 to November last year.
In the SAIRR’s first report, the
same was done for the period between January 2009 and April 2010.
When the 2011 report was released, police said the problem was 'overstated' and that measures were in place to deal with police criminality. And the police has again poured cold water on the new report.
The SAIRR then applied the same methodology for their 2015 report to test whether anything had changed.
The 2011 report’s findings stated:
“We found 40 cases related to murders. Rapes accounted for 20 incidents. Ten of
the incidents related to armed robberies. Four cases implicate police officers
in serious fraud, illegal dealing in weapons and ATM bombings.”
The findings for the 2015 report
indicated 36 cases related to murders, 21 related to armed robberies, 27
related to rapes and 16 related to other types of crime ranging from torture to
theft and burglaries.
“The fact that we could so easily
identify 100 incidents over such a short period of time would suggest that
South Africa continues to confront a massive problem,” the draft report states.
As solutions, the SAIRR makes
proposals including restoring respect for the chain of command within the
police.
“The choice of police commissioner
in Riah Phiyega is so utterly inappropriate that it cannot instil confidence in
other members.
“That such an important position can fall to such an incompetent person is indicative of the broader command and control problems facing policing in South Africa.”
In response, national police spokesman Solomon Makgale said on Sunday: “Criminality within the SAPS is not an invention of the national commissioner.
“Efforts are being put in place to reduce criminality within the police. Over the 18 months to October 2014, we dismissed 777 people.”
Makgale said Phiyega met SAIRR representatives on Friday.
“After questioning, it is being claimed that 'no case dockets were studied, neither were court reports or judgments taken into consideration as part of this research,” he said.
Institute for Security Studies spokesman Gareth Newham also questioned the upper echelons of the police force.
“It is a challenge that must be addressed. There is no sense in appointing someone who does not know policing.”
http://www.iol.co.za/news/crime-courts/alarm-at-high-rate-of-cop-criminality-1.1809027
News Source Link
http://www.iol.co.za/news/crime-courts/alarm-at-high-rate-of-cop-criminality-1.1809027
https://www.afriforum.co.za/wp-content/uploads/Broken-Blue-LIne-finalised-2.pdf
https://www.afriforum.co.za/wp-content/uploads/Broken-Blue-LIne-finalised-2.pdf
