DA: Metro cops must stay
2012-07-03 16:32
Cape Town - The Democratic Alliance has vowed to fight any attempts by the African National Congress to do away with metro police by absorbing them into the SA Police Service.
"The DA will fight any attempts by government to give effect to the ANC’s renewed call for a so-called 'single police service'," DA MP Dianne Kohler Barnard said in a statement on Tuesday.
At its policy conference in Gauteng last week, the ruling party had confirmed its support for the absorption of municipal police services into the SAPS.
"Should this proposal be included in the draft white paper on safety and security, expected to be tabled in Parliament later this year, we will oppose it," she said.
The argument for the absorption of the metro police into SAPS included their lack of accountability, as well as the need for better crime-fighting responses.
However, functional metro police services, such as in Cape Town, "show that they are perfectly capable of being effective and accountable".
Metro police, in conjunction with business and other stakeholders, had brought down crime in Cape Town's CBD by 90%.
"Indeed, absorbing metro police services into the SAPS bureaucracy will only mire them in the same organisational inefficiency and chaos from which the SAPS suffers," Kohler Barnard said.
"This will destroy the crime fighting ability of the metro police."
- SAPA
