Saps 'clean-up' plan suggested

2010-03-03 17:05

Cape Town - The Democratic Alliance on Wednesday proposed a five-point plan to "clean up" the SA Police Service (Saps).

"This comes in the wake of seemingly increased illegal activities by police officers," DA spokesperson Dianne Kohler-Barnard told a media briefing.

The DA logged some 71 cases of police officers reported in the media to have been involved in corrupt or illegal activities over the past six months.

The charges included rape, theft, drug smuggling, physical assault and kidnapping.

These reports illustrated a broader problem affecting the security services - a failure to exemplify the attitude and values that defined the rule of law, Kohler-Barnard said.

The DA's discussion document proposed five measures to tackle the "culture of impunity" and strengthen South Africa's efforts to build a better, more trustworthy police service.

ICD advice ignored

Firstly, the Independent Complaints Directorate (ICD) was the police watchdog, but its recommendations were largely ignored by the police, with SAPS following only 10% of its suggestions.

The ICD needed to be bolstered to allow proper oversight and accountability.

Secondly, ethical and principled leadership was fundamental to any ethical and principled organisational culture, and went to the heart of any successful police service.

"To help create such a culture, those officers in leadership positions who set bad examples need to be held to account.

"At present, many officers that should be placed on leave or suspended remain at work, and many officers who face gravely serious charges, are granted extensive paid long-leave instead of being asked to resign or dismissed," Kohler-Barnard said.

Overhaul of recruitment and training

Essentially, police officials serving in leadership positions, but also facing serious criminal charges or ICD investigations, needed, where appropriate, to be suspended, asked to resign, or removed from office.

Thirdly, police recruitment, training, and performance evaluation needed to be overhauled.

The recruitment process should be decentralised, all new recruits should undergo psychometric testing, and appointments should be made on merit.

"The last point is particularly important, because many would-be police officers feel that the police service is embroiled in nepotism and cronyism, and are thus dissuaded from applying to join the service," she said.

Mandatory training and specialised training courses should be introduced, and an elite training academy established to identify those officers with top potential to fast-track their careers through intensive specialised training.

Counselling

Performance evaluation should incorporate each member's ability to "live the cause", meaning performance agreements should be enforced and those who did not deliver should not be kept on.

Likewise, where officers performed well, they ought to be rewarded as such.

Fourthly, a comprehensive internal audit was necessary to properly understand the working of the current SAPS's organisational culture, and to identify areas where it was lacking in all levels of the service.

Finally, the DA proposed "adequate counselling" for police officers.

The total number of Saps members who received psychological counselling had decreased by over 5 000 members in the past two years, from 28 158 in 2007/08 to 23 055 in 2008/09.

This meant only one out of 10 Saps members received counselling last year.

The nature of the work and strains that formed part of the policing profession could take a heavy toll on members.

Therefore, adequate counselling should be readily available for all members at all times, so that problems causing members to stray from the principles and values of the service, could be addressed immediately.
 

- SAPA