Why cop killings are increasing

2003-05-20 13:51

Pretoria - Confusion among police about their rights to self-defence was contributing to the large number of police killings, said national commissioner Jackie Selebi on Tuesday.

Of the 136 members killed last year, 60% did not defend themselves, he told a national summit on police killings here.

The reason for this, he said, was confusion being sown in the minds of, especially, junior members about their rights to protect themselves.

"Why can they not defend themselves?" Selebi asked.

"If they cannot defend themselves, how are they going to defend the rest of the community?"

According to a recent study commissioned by the police watchdog, the Independent Complaints Directorate, police should no longer be allowed to fire warning shots at a fleeing suspect.

Under police regulations, an officer is only justified in shooting at a suspect if there is real danger of harm to anyone.

"If warning shots are fired, the assumption is that a suspect is making an attempt to flee and hence could not possibly be seen as a threat to the life of the officer or any bystanders," the report says.

Will continue to use warning shots

Parts of section 49 of the Criminal Procedure Act dealing with this issue have been referred to the Constitutional Court, which is still considering the matter.

On Tuesday, Selebi said there should not be any ambiguity about the present state of affairs.

"There is no such policy in the police that we cannot use warning shots. We will continue to do so until the management and the minister decide we can't use warning shots."

When talking about the human rights of crime suspects, the dangers faced by the police were often not taken into account.

Studies to this effect often referred to how "brutal" the police were, Selebi said.

"If they were so brutal, why didn't 60% of them defend themselves?"

The commissioner said any attack on a police member should be regarded as an attack on law and order, and democracy itself.

A message needed to go out that those killing police members would receive no mercy, he said.

- SAPA