Tales of police behaving badly
January 19 2013 at 10:19am
By Tanya Waterworth
By Tanya Waterworth
Durban -
eThekwini metro police officers taking leisurely lunches in police vehicles
while parked on a yellow line… a Durban resident’s son being beaten and kicked
by traffic officers… those were among the allegations in e-mails received by
The Independent on Saturday this week.
The
complaints follow last week’s story on Metro Police head Eugene Nzama’s spat
with a Durban resident outside Addington Hospital over a badly parked metro
vehicle.
Lutchman
Natalie said that Nzama and his unnamed driver turned on him, swearing and
shouting when he asked them to move their vehicle as he did not have enough
space to get his ill wife out of the car and into a wheelchair.
Furious
Durban residents responded to the story with photographs and complaints of
their own, which included:
l An
18-year-old boy being beaten, kicked and pepper-sprayed at a roadblock during
the festive season. A case of assault had been opened.
l Metro cops
fining drivers of vehicles parked on a yellow line, while their own vehicle was
parked on the same line.
l Officers
parking in a metro police vehicle outside a shopping centre for up to two hours
on a Sunday, having lunch.
l Takeaway
packets thrown on to the pavements from metro vans, as police officers enjoyed
lunch.
l Police
abandoning a 70-year-old pensioner on the side of the road.
This week,
Gareth Newham, of the Institute of Security Studies, said that the attitude of
police officers was “substantially determined by the prevailing culture or
ethos in the police organisation”.
He said that
leadership was the most critical component for setting a culture of integrity,
fairness and professionalism within an organisation. “This culture is
determined by the way that senior and middle-level managers behave both towards
their officers and members of the public.
“When there
is a widespread problem of poor attitudes or behaviour among police officers,
it is usually because of weaknesses or breakdown in the police command
structures,” said Newham.
He said that
when citizens mistrusted and feared the police, the public stopped reporting
crime, which contributed to growing levels of criminality.
Meanwhile,
eThekwini spokesman Thabo Mofokeng confirmed that a full report of the incident
involving Natalie and Nzama had been provided to municipal manager S’bu
Sithole’s office. Mofokeng said that in terms of the Road Traffic Act, metro
officers were not required to adhere to the law – such as not parking on yellow
lines – if it was “in execution of duties”, but that the public may lay any
complaints at the City Ombudsman’s Office.
Independent
on Saturday
http://www.iol.co.za/news/crime-courts/tales-of-police-behaving-badly-1.1454823
