Mthethwa wants tough, smart policing

2010-11-24 22:57

Johannesburg - Police minister Nathi Mthethwa on Wednesday outlined plans for effective policing in South Africa to deal a blow against the crime rate.

"...We will fight it toughly, smartly and within the confines of the law...we want to emphasise government's uncompromisable commitment to fighting crime and all its evils," he said.

"Lazy cops will have no place or space in the force....Corrupt police officers have no place in SAPS."

Mthethwa was speaking at the Chamber of Commerce in SA dinner on "A focus on the future plans of the South African Police Service, in the short term and medium term".

He said: "We also intend to utilise this opportunity to derive valuable input. Our intent stems from an understanding that to succeed in dealing a blow to the crime scourge, we broadening our interactions with all sectors of society."

Building partnerships

In addition Mthethwa said the secretariat of police was currently engaging with academics and other institutions to "continuously share best practices".

The police service would also be collaborating with Statistics South Africa to initiate another Victims Perception Survey.

This would help to understand patterns of victimisation and will begin in January next year. The government-led community-policing philosophy would also be enhanced.

"Some of the current programmes that we are currently implementing include the finalisation of a community safety forum strategy by the secretariat of police," he said.

"This strategy will outline and contribute to a greater understanding of the role and responsibility of the public in crime combating.

"It will also focus on building partnerships with civil society and corrections as a societal responsibility."

Police would also ensure that "post-the arrest phase", criminals received the harshest sentence.

"Police, through doing a thorough job in the investigations, can influence an outcome of a case. This is what we term the ground work."

The need to revitalise the intelligence component of SAPS was also prioritised.

"Equally we continue to up-skill and capacitate our detective services."

This included not only increasing the number of detectives but also the quality of those recruited.

"The success of this approach has been seen in the co-operation that has developed between the detective service, the Hawks and our crime intelligence," he said.

War rooms

On reducing backlogs, Mthethwa said: "We are well aware that we cannot strengthen our detective services without equally addressing our forensic capacity.

"Encouragingly, we are beginning to see some improvements in our forensics backlogs, which augur well for our fight against crime."

"War rooms" had also been introduced, he said.

He said the success of the war rooms is that improved, higher level linkage analysis and profiling of all criminals could be done "expeditiously and smarter".

" This has been of major assistance with regard to provincial assistance to police stations, clustering investigation teams and focusing on crime series..."

Police would also strengthen the fight on crime against women and children.

"A nation that does not protect its mothers and children is doomed."

The family violence, child protection and sexual offences (FCS) units would also be re-established, Mthethwa said.

- SAPA