SA’s wild west cops
2011-02-13 10:00
Erna van Wyk
City Press
A new study has found that police involvement in serious and violent crime is not limited to “isolated incidents” but a general pattern of behaviour that is common across the country.
Researchers say the 100 cases they examined are just “the tip of the iceberg” and they highlight -alleged police involvement in ¬serious crimes such as ATM bombings and house robberies, among others.
The research was conducted last year by the Unit for Risk Analysis at the South African Institute of Race Relations (SAIRR) and is due for ¬release tomorrow.
The researchers studied media ¬reports and gathered information from the Independent Complaints Directorate (ICD). Within one week 100 cases of alleged police involvement in serious and ¬violent crime were found.
The cases did not include petty crimes, poor service delivery or officials soliciting small bribes.
Three quarters of the cases studied took place between January 2009 and April last year.
They were not an indication of the total number of allegations against police officers or convictions of police officers for involvement in serious and violent crimes over the period.
“We have bumped into the tip of an iceberg of violent and criminal behaviour in the ranks of the police which needs to be aired in public,” says deputy chief executive at the SAIRR, Frans Cronjé.
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Posted by Andrea Muhrrteyn at 2/13/2011 10:43:00 AM 0 comment
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