I have sent the following letter to the Cape Times. Hopefully they will publish it. Please feel free to pass it on.
Having worked with SAPS for the last 5 years on the Woodstock Community Police Forum (CPF) and at Sector level together with numerous neighbourhood watches, I have high respect for the majority of our working, professional policemen and women . However things seem to be falling apart, more than ever, at higher levels of SAPS management: * Three years ago the Observatory Sector Manager was a Superintendant and he used to patrol with residents on foot. Now Sector managers are Constables and it is years since I have seen a SAPS officer patrolling on foot. * The Woodstock CPF used to receive detailed monthly crime statistics so that they could work with SAPS. Now SAPS top management will not allow the disclosure of any current crime statistics. As a result at CPF level SAPS only say that a crime category has gone up or down and give absolutely no figures. I believe it is near impossible to run an undertaking with a partner who will not reveal the performance figures. There is no sense of partnership and trust. * We are told that in March this year the Woodstock Community Police Forum was annulled because the October Election of the new CPF committee was declared unconstitutional. This was apparently due to the correct outside officials being found not to have been represented at the election meeting. This annulment can in fact only be done by the Provincial Commissioner, after engaging in the dispute-resolution mechanisms provided for in the Constitution. It is not known how much policing in Woodstock has deteriorated now that the community is no longer involved. No doubt, if it has been legally annulled, new volunteers will be found to start up the Woodstock CPF afresh. In the meantime the community suffers. I wonder how many other CPFs could be annulled if the details of their elections were investigated. * Other CPFs and Neighbourhood watches confirm a serious falling off of Police standards. To quote a very senior SAPS retired officer: "I thought I would never be able to say it but the fact of the matter is that Policing is falling apart everywhere." * The previous National Police Commissioner is in jail. The current National Commissioner is on trial. The murder docket for the main candidate for the next National Commissioner has mysteriously disappeared. The promotion system within SAPS appears to be a mystery to its members and constables are suddenly promoted to Colonel. Clearly there is serious political meddling and this must be disastrous for the morale of professional police. It is evident that the 'moneyed suburbs' increasingly provide their own security -- through Neighbourhood Watches, CIDs and through the large sums of money they collectively pay to private security firms. This leads to the question, to what extent can the police take the credit if their stats show that crime levels are dropping? Maybe SAPS should acknowledge that we are all in this together and provide current crime stats? Alternatively maybe the unofficial crime stats collected in many districts by residents should be published? It is difficult to argue with the SAPS redeployment of resources from the leafy suburbs to the areas where there is the most crime. The reappearance of necklacing makes the point. The bottom line is that we are and always will be fighting an uphill battle for resources because SAPS must always take into account the needs of all districts. Areas like the Cape Flats are likely to, more and more, receive the bulk of resources. Undoubtedly this must be leading to enormous and mounting pressure on city and general policing. On the constructive side, positive proposals that I have heard include: * From an Ex SAPS officer: "That the only way it can work is through apolitical Civilian Oversight Committees with Policing and Legal Experts at the helm to call SAPS to order and to demand accountability and responsibility! Civilian Oversight cannot be done by volunteers or people with little knowledge of Policing. This is definitely a full or part time function." He also says that feels sorry for those professionals in SAPS that swim against the tide every day! * Employers should allow and encourage their staff to spend (say) 2 days of their working month as reservists in either SAPS or the city Law Enforcement force. It is my belief that large and increasing quantities of ideas, resources and money are soon going to be needed from business and the private sector to bolster security and help SAPS. David Raphael 072 065 7223 Ex member of WOODSTOCK COMMUNITY POLICE FORUM Many thanks, David David Raphael +27 (0)21 447 2486 or +27 (0)72 065 7223 14 Lytton Street, Cape Town 7925, South Africa -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "The Observatory Neighbourhood watch" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/obsnw?hl=en.
