Crime in the ranks

NEGLIGENT police management, poor training, disrespect for law and order, criminal members within police ranks and blatant disregard for internal disciplinary procedures are the chief causes behind the scourge of police brutality gripping South Africa.

This was the message from renowned South African criminologists and the Independent Complaints Directorate (ICD) at a conference on police brutality and the use of force in Pretoria yesterday.

Police management failed to attend the forum because of other “commitments”.

 With 2 462 criminal complaints laid against the police in the 2009/10 financial year and the organisation coming under increased pressure following the murder of service delivery protesters across South Africa, criminologists and the ICD say urgent action needs to be taken to avert the crisis.

According to the ICD, of the 2 462 complaints, 920 (40 percent) were for assault with intent to cause grievous bodily harm, 422 (22 percent) for common assault and 325 (17 percent) for attempted murder.

 Of the deaths through police action, 22 percent occurred during the commission of crimes, 4 percent during escapes, 10 percent during investigations, 46 percent during arrests, while 2 percent of those killed were innocent bystanders.

David Bruce, senior researcher at the Centre for the Study of Violence and Reconciliation, said: “It is clear that police management does not know what is going on.

“There is a clear absence of understanding from police leadership on how to deal with the use of force. Management has to take responsibility if this brutality is to be stopped.”

Bruce said it seemed that the police’s solution for dealing with crime was to use violence such as extra-judicial executions of alleged cop killers.

The impression was “that police leadership believes extra-legal methods are necessary to deal with violent crime”.

“This leads to serious non-fatal police violence with reports of torture and assaults on the increase, even as police murders are on the decrease.”

One of the biggest causes for concern was the lack of clarity in messages from management to police members on how to fight crime, he said.

Bruce said many policemen acted with good intentions, but because of a lack of skills and experience, the use of force caused more harm, exposing officers to great danger.

“What is worrying about this is that the use of force is often completely unnecessary, especially as the police involved could have dealt with the situations in another way.

“Even if police use lethal force with the intention of acting lawfully, they approach the subject with a ‘cover yourself’ attitude. They deal with the investigation in a way which will minimise the chance of being disciplined with the investigation being closed down as quickly as possible.”

Institute of Security Studies policing researcher Andrew Faull said there was evidence that corruption and police brutality were on the increase.

ICD spokesman Moses Dlamini said there was an increase in police brutality. This was influenced by factors such as increased encounters between police and suspects, and service delivery protests.

In recent months police brutality has come under the spotlight because of a number of high-profile cases.

For the family of brothers Mujaheed, 22, and Mika-Eel Moosa, 18, who were not charged with any crimes, the night they were attacked is indelibly etched in their minds.

Their family were repeatedly denied access to their sons, as they lay seriously injured and bleeding in the cells of a Cape Town police station in September. The two had been attacked after driving through red traffic lights and a police roadblock.

Gasina said her sons were in continuous pain. “Mika-eel suffered serious back injuries and Mujaheed had bad head injuries, with both of them being hospitalised.

“When I got to the police station they refused to allow me to see them. They would not give me answers as to why they beat, kicked, punched and whipped my boys.

“What makes this worse is that they were not charged with anything. On top of this, when they opened a case, the police who took their statements threatened them. “We will get justice no matter what,” she said.

 

 

 

 

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