The National police commissioner has been to asked to explain what appears to be a critical police shortage in Cape Town.
|||Cape Town - The national police commissioner has been to asked to appear in person before the Western Cape parliament to explain what appears to be a critical shortage of policemen at crime hot spots.
And if General Riah Phiyega does not agree to appear and explain, she will be ordered to do so. This was the request on Wednesday, and then the threat, made by the head of the Western Cape legislature’s portfolio committee on safety, former community safety MEC Mark Wiley.
It comes after the news that thousands of Cape Town’s most vulnerable citizens are having to fend for themselves against rampant crime in their areas because of a dire shortage of police. The national South African average for police coverage is one policeman for every 330 people.
But in some of Cape Town’s most crime-ridden suburbs, there are as few as one policeman per 3 000 people. The figures were officially obtained by Community Safety MEC Dan Plato from the provincial commissioner’s office, and Plato is dismayed by the results.
“The 20 police stations with the worst police-to-population ratios are, without fail, the stations which are notorious for high levels of crime.”
In response to the statistics, Wiley said: “For some two years now the committee has endeavoured to get clarity, without success.”
His chief concern is the minimum service level standards of “visible policing” at station level.
These units are the police people see on the street and are the first responders to almost every crime scene.
“Yet, by admission of the provincial commissioner’s office, the unit is under strength even by the 2004 census figures, and is due to get even smaller.”
Wiley said the provincial commissioner had repeatedly been asked to explain but on every occasion he, or his deputies, had admitted they were all nationally driven policies - hence the decision by the committee to invite the national commissioner.
“I would be loathe to send a sheriff with a summons to Pretoria… I am sure that this will not be necessary,” Wiley said.
Annelize van Wyk MP, chairwoman of the portfolio committee on police, said in response to Plato’s figures that the methodology for compiling the statistics was deeply problematic.
“First, to reach the national average and the provincial averages, they include a whole range of police staff types - such as your staff at national and provincial offices, and involved in logistics, administration, management, support services, etcetera - not always found at station level.
“So you cannot simply compare individual police stations’ figures and match them against a provincial average.”
Van Wyk said the most effective analytical tool to use was the Resource Allocation Guide, which the police used to determine how many policemen to send where. This guide was itself outdated and her committee had repeatedly urged the police to update it with the latest census data to ensure a proper spread of police.
But she added: “Policing is not simply a numbers issue. I would urge Mr Plato not to opportunistically simplify a far more complex issue.
“He and his government should look at the underlying critical factors that contribute to crime in those areas and those factors that hinder effective policing - the lack of service delivery, unemployment and the high prevalence of drugs.
“Then there are also those factors that make policing difficult, that can be addressed in the short term by local and provincial government: simple things such as proper lighting in those areas, proper roads and road names, and numbers on houses… All of these aspects negatively affect the reaction time and effectiveness of the police in those areas.”
Cape Argus