There is a shortage of police officers in Western Cape areas with a high murder rate, community safety MEC Dan Plato said.
|||Cape Town - There is a shortage of police officers in Western Cape areas with a high murder rate, community safety MEC Dan Plato said on Wednesday.
“The SA Police Service (SAPS) in the Western Cape often prides itself on claiming to have one of South Africa’s best (police to citizen) ratios, which, according to SAPS, is 1:245,” he said.
The national ratio was one officer for every 303 citizens.
Plato said the 10 police stations with the highest number of reported murders, all in Cape Town, had “concerning” ratios.
“At the majority of these stations, each officer is instead serving at least five times more citizens than the provincial norm.”
He said it could be assumed that the low number of police officers affected crime levels in the area and needed to be addressed urgently.
Nyanga, which recorded the highest number of reported murders in 2011/2012, had one officer for every 1418 citizens.
Khayelitsha and Harare, which had the next highest number of murders in the province, had police/population ratios of 1:1675 and 1:1702 respectively.
Mitchells Plain police station on the Cape Flats had one officer for every 3239 citizens.
Plato said the ratios for every police station were provided by provincial police commissioner Arno Lamoer on May 7.
Lamoer had allegedly failed to respond to two official requests regarding the plan to address the ratios.
The MEC had since referred the matter to the provincial standing committee on community safety, cultural affairs, and sport.
“(Lamoer) will now have to explain to Parliament and the people of the Western Cape what measures will be taken to fix this,” he said.
Committee chairman Mark Wiley recently said a meeting would be scheduled with national police commissioner Riah Phiyega in the third quarter on various policing issues which needed clarification.
Provincial police spokesman Lt-Col Andre Traut said they had taken note of the figures but would not comment. - Sapa