DA accuses police of ‘selective, cynical
manipulation’ of crime stats
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Democratic
Alliance MP Dianne Kohler Barnard. Picture: TREVOR SAMSON
THE
Democratic Alliance (DA) has emphatically rejected the South African Police
Service’s analysis of crime statistics as selective and cynical manipulation,
and called for national police commissioner Riah Phiyega to be fired.
Police
Minister Nathi Mthethwa and Gen Phiyega this week claimed some substantial
decreases in certain categories of crime and largely insignificant increases in
others.
They
were, however, criticised for their analysis by various organisations claiming
it was the worst crime situation in the country in the past 10 years.
DA
spokeswoman on police matters Dianne Kohler Barnard told a news conference on
Friday that the way in which the crime statistics were presented was
"smoke and mirrors" and "done with the least transparency
possible".
At issue
is the measurement of crime statistics as a ratio per 100,000 of the population
instead of calculating the increases and decreases simply on the raw data.
Ms Kohler
Barnard said the murder rate increase of 0.6%, for instance, measured against the
2011 population figures, was not born out when actual murders in 2012-13 were
compared with the previous year. If actual bodies were measured against actual
bodies, then the increase was 4.2%, she said.
She said
this also applied to the crimes South Africans feared the most — hijackings and
house and business robberies — where modest increases were announced by Mr
Mthethwa and Gen Phiyega.
She said
they claimed that hijacking had shown a 2% increase when actual hijackings had
increased 5.4%; house robberies, as a ratio of the population, were claimed to
have increased 3.6% when actual incidents reported to the police showed an
increase of 7.1%; and business robberies, up 0.6%, should be up 2.7%.
