Worries rise over crack police unit shortages
23 December 2011
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NELSON Mandela Bay’s police have been hit by a crippling shortage of emergency response staff, with a maximum of only four vehicles per shift able to respond to serious and violent crimes – instead of the usual eight.
Officers say the city’s K9 and Flying Squad units are critically short of personnel as a result of staff being booked off sick or having been granted annual leave in flagrant disregard of requests from national police that leave not be granted to officers during the December-January period.
But provincial police spokeswoman Brigadier Marinda Mills said in response to an inquiry from The Herald the Bay had “sufficient manpower to execute their duties”.
Later, however, an SMS was sent by senior police officers to all Flying Squad members informing them that “all leave” had been cancelled.
The worries about police manpower come in the wake of a critical shortage of metro ambulances after at least 10 emergency services staff members booked off sick last weekend.
And earlier this week it was learnt that the Bay’s only police helicopter had been grounded after provincial police failed to book it in for a mandatory service.
Meanwhile, an expert blasted the Eastern Cape police, saying “mismanagement is clearly rife” and the situation required urgent intervention from the provincial commissioner.
First indication of the staff shortage came when The Herald was shown a shift register showing members of both squads booked off on sick and annual leave.
Later, a police brigadier sent the SMS to the Flying Squad, saying that “all operational members that are on leave must be informed that they must return to work. In other words, there is no leave for December.”
But whether all staff will, in fact, return to duty remains to be seen, with officers who have been booked off sick or away on leave unlikely to return at short notice.
Unit members attributed the shortage not only to annual or sick leave but also, in part, to people being transferred and not replaced.
Several members of the units confirmed that for most of the month there had been only one K9 unit vehicle and two or three Flying Squad vehicles per 12-hour shift.
One senior policeman, who did not want to be named, confirmed that attempts to get Flying Squad vehicles to respond to priority crimes were “difficult”.
“A large part of the shortage is due to members who have been transferred or sent to other stations and simply not replaced,” a unit officer said.
“To join a specialised unit, you need a minimum of two years’ experience and are then sent on various courses.
“To replace the high level of training of these members is not easy and takes time.” In May last year, the K9 unit acquired 11 new vehicles after The Herald reported how members were sent home because they did not have vehicles to do their jobs.
In her initial response to inquiries from The Herald on Thursday, Mills claimed the Bay had “sufficient manpower to execute their duties”.
Despite this, she said the Bay service would be bolstered with extra manpower in the coming weeks.
“We are also in the process of launching a special operational plan that will see a huge increase in police officials in the Port Elizabeth area over the next two weeks.” Mills denied the operational plan had anything to do with manpower shortages.
Meanwhile, University of South Africa (Unisa) criminal justice and police practice lecturer Professor Rudolph Zinn said the lack of manpower in rapid response units was extremely concerning.
“These units respond to serious crimes, so it is imperative that they are fully operational, especially during this time of year,” said Zinn, a former detective.
“There will be regular vehicles at the police stations also to respond, but they deal with petty crimes and other matters.
“It is absolutely essential that the rapid response units have free range to cover each and every priority crime.”
Zinn said if these response units did not function correctly, more pressure was placed on police station components.
“The station vehicles are used for police to take dockets and statements, arrest people and do all the general policing.
“The whole reason these rapid response units exist is because there is a need for fast action on priority crimes.”
“I am very concerned about this [lack of staff] as these units are vital to the safety of residents,” Zinn said.
