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| NEWS > 19 November 2008 |
Other related articles:
Top Mounties rewrote half repo
OTTAWA -- B.C. RCMP detachments will have observers on their shoulder during investigations into in-custody deaths or other serious incidents involving the RCMP .
A pilot project for the province was announced in Ottawa yesterday by the Commission for Public Complaints Against the RCMP is aimed at restoring confidence in the force after two high-profile police shootings in the Interior.
In conjunction with the RCMP office of investigative standards and practices, commission chairman Paul Kennedy said... Read more
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 Article sourced from
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Independent Online - Cape Town
19 November 2008
This article appeared in the above title/site.
To view it in its entirity click this link.
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EiP
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'It's cheaper to bribe the cop
Pro-active anti-corruption bodies and awareness campaigns are among the suggestions to stamp out corruption in metro police departments.
On Tuesday Institute for Security Studies researcher Andrew Faull presented his paper on corruption and corruption management in the metros at a briefing featuring a panel of top brass from the Tshwane, Ekurhuleni, Johannesburg, Durban and Cape Town metro police departments.
The metro representatives acknowledged the presence of corruption, but claimed they were doing their best to beat it.
Faull said despite perceptions of corruption being high, in reality South Africa did not fare badly on international corruption ratings.
However, he said, while senior management acknowledged that corruption was a problem, those mandated to root out police corruption in the department did not treat it as a major problem.
Faull said these oversight bodies referred to the low number of reported incidents of corruption to back these claims.
But there were no sound mechanisms to report corruption in these departments and this lassitude encouraged corruption.
"Citizens don't report corruption because it is in their interest - they can save up to 70 percent on the fine by bribing the officer.
"So the argument by management that there is not much corruption because not much is being reported falls flat," he said.
Faull said all the anti-corruption bodies were reactive by nature, as opposed to pro-active and public anti-corruption awareness was missing throughout the country.
"None of the departments have guidelines on how to blow the whistle or there is no encouragement in this regard."
He said among the challenges facing metro departments in rooting out corruptions was the lack of a police-specific code of conduct.
Metro police officers share the same code of conduct as any other public servant, while the SAPS members have their own.
Among Faull's suggestions was be to tailor the code of conduct to better suit metro officers as police officers, not as public servants.
He said the anti-corruption bodies should be pro-active and create anti-corruption hotlines with better corruption reporting structures.
Faull suggested citizens should also take responsibility for themselves on rooting out corruption, as it takes two to tango.
"South Africans seem to have a relatively flexible approach to corruption.
"Too many people protest corruption but offer a bribe in the same breath.
"Public education at a national level on corruption is urgently needed," he said.
A problem identified by one police officer was that some members used whistle-blowing as a means of carrying out a personal vendetta against a fellow employee.
He also claimed that unions were party to the problem and in extreme cases advocated corruption.
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