Dockets
in the loo no cause for stink
Stacked in boxes are hundreds
of documents, some the resident believed to be criminal investigation dockets
Bathroom humour - a resident submitted this photograph of boxes
of documents in an accessible bathroom on the
A CONCERNED resident contacted the Zululand Observer this week
after visiting the ladies toilet at the Empangeni SAPS station.
Stacked in boxes there are hundreds of documents, some the
resident believed to be criminal investigation dockets.
Cellphone photographs of the documents led the ZO to investigate
further.
‘These documents are administrative documents, and certainly not
active dockets,’ said SAPS spokesperson Captain
Mbongeni Mdlalose.
‘The bathroom in question is also a staff only bathroom that is
kept locked in the afternoons.’
Capt Mdlalose then took the ZO on a tour of the secure store
rooms where the dockets are kept.
‘As you can see we keep these dockets very securely where no
member of the public has access to them.’
Owing to a current standing order, the SAPS are not allowed to
discard any dockets, even those for petty crimes.
‘Usually we would destroy petty crime dockets after about three
years, now we have to keep everything.’
In an older storeroom, dockets from as far back as 1996 are kept
as per regulations for more serious crimes.
The hundreds of dockets filed away every year bear testament to
the massive number of crimes
the Empangeni SAPS deal with on a daily basis.
