NEWS > 28 September 2005

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Mail & Guardian Online, Africa
28 September 2005

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Police 'much more stable' desp

Many corrupt police officials believe nothing serious will happen to them if they are caught -- and police corruption often goes unchecked because neither the corruptee, or bribe payer, nor the official involved will report it.

According to figures in the South African Police Service's (SAPS) 2003/04 annual report, almost 50% of formal disciplinary hearings resulted in no sanctions against the accused officers. Though not all these hearings related to corruption, these figures give rise to the perception that "absolutely nothing" will happen to police officers involved in corruption.

So says Gareth Newham, project manager at the Centre for the Study of Violence and Reconciliation (CSVR), who spoke to the Mail & Guardian Online on Wednesday after addressing a seminar in Johannesburg on the state of policing in South Africa.

"Police officers don't like taking action against their members. Most get off with verbal warning and fines. Very few are dismissed," Newham said.

Despite the shadow cast by corruption, research conducted at the CSVR shows that the South African Police Service (SAPS) has improved its performance in the past 10 years.

This is according to Antony Altbeker, a senior researcher at the CSVR, who addressed the seminar on Tuesday evening.

"The state of policing, given the realities of the job description, is better than expected and has improved tremendously over the past 10 years," Altbeker said. "There is now a strong professional ethos within the organisation, crime is coming down and the law, compared to 10 years ago, is about legitimacy."

Altbeker told the M&G Online on Wednesday: "One can quibble about individual policies [in the police], but [they are] much more stable now."

He believes that the first five years of democracy were quite "traumatic" for the police as a result of a loss of personnel during a time when crime was on the increase.

The police have more resources now than they did when they first started, said Altbeker. In 2000/01 there were only 119 000 police officers. Currently there are 160 000 officers on the force.

"The police are much more focused and committed to making a decision [these days]. They are not treating all areas alike. That also is a good thing. I think police have been politically brave in saying [they are] going to focus on areas with crime," said Altbeker.

Other researchers at Tuesday's seminar agreed with Altbeker that the SAPS, while facing many problems -- including lack of resources, corruption and a heavy workload -- has seen improvements since 10 years ago in terms of reducing the crime rate.

"In the annual report of the SAPS released last week, the detection rate on murder had increased by 10%," said David Bruce, another CSVR researcher.

Bruce was presenting a handbook on his research called The Police that We Want: Evaluating Police in SA.

While police are improving their services, they still face many challenges, and the media and parliamentarians are relatively uninformed about the police, Bruce said.

Questions that should be asked when evaluating police are not being asked. This often leads to a negative perception about police.

Bruce said there are five key areas to focus on when evaluating police. These are:

protecting democratic political life, focusing on parliamentarians and elections;

governance, accountability and transparency;

service delivery;

proper police conduct; and

police as citizens.

Altbeker told the M&G Online that corruption is a universal and underlying problem.

However, "it's not helpful" when the police try to justify corruption within their ranks by saying that they don't get paid enough.

"They all know what their prospects are" when they become an officer, Altbeker said.

"It is not a healthy response from the police � they are rationalising [corruption] and in my opinion, that's having your cake and eating it."

All police officers know that corruption is wrong, and "those people that are involved are betraying their calling", he said.

Not only in South Africa
Newham said a lot still needs to be done to fight corruption.

"However, corruption is not only affecting South Africa. Police services in other countries have a much higher rate of corruption than in South Africa," he said.

Corruption can be fought if changes are made to police culture and management, if there is improved command and accountability, if there are proactive internal investigations undertaken by secured and well-resourced specialised units, and if there is a growth in the number of police employed.

Newham said it is impossible to know the full extent of corruption, but that it occurs because of greed, debt, opportunity, blackmail and peer pressure.

He told the M&G Online that the national Afrobarometer surveys suggest there has been a general increase in police corruption over the past four years.

An undercover unit in the police should be created, he said, to investigate officers by relying on different information sources, including policing forums, and not solely on the word of the public.

One of the "biggest challenges is petty corruption � there should be a strategy in place to deal with low levels of corruption" within the police.

"Corruption [in the police] is the underlying fight against crime."

The most vulnerable people, such as sex workers, drug dealers and illegal immigrants, are most likely to bribe officers, said Newham.

"Discipline needs to be one area where there has to be serious changes � it's neglected."

'People don't think of police as citizens'
Themba Masuku, a senior researcher, told the seminar that police are trying their best to do their jobs, but they feel they are not necessarily treated as citizens.

"The treatment of police officials before 1994 was atrocious," said Masuku, because many police officers were not treated as citizens under the apartheid regime. "While many changes have taken place since 1994 -- like training, awards and recognition -- people don't often think or talk about police as citizens."

Police officials do not enjoy all the rights that other citizens do.

They are entitled to benefits, promotions, medical aid, being fairly remunerated for working in dangerous places, and skills development, Masuku said.

"Unlike other citizens, police don't enjoy the right to strike, [and] police are restricted from active politics. Questions are being asked whether officials should enjoy safety rights that citizens enjoy in general, and whether an official can run away or hide on the pretext that he/she fears for his life."

Masuku said progress has been made in terms of benefits in the past few years. Families of murdered or injured police officials, or those who have HIV/Aids, are being compensated. Tremendous progress has been made regarding promotions, although police have been accused of being too rigid.

However, Masuku told the M&G Online that "in some instances, police officers' rights have to be restricted".

"They must have limitations because of the power and privileges that are given to them by the state. Surely they can't have the right to remain silent when they kill" because they're given the power to kill, he said.

"They can't have the right to safety that I enjoy. They provide the safety. They cannot run away [from trouble], I can.

"It is a problem if that is the case," he added.

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Article sourced from

Mail & Guardian Online, Africa28 September 2005

Police 'much more stable' desp

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Mail & Guardian Online, Africa
28 September 2005