DA called for an audit on false Crime Statistics two years ago

Media reports suggesting that certain Police Stations are fiddling with crime statistics come as no surprise (see article). On 31 July 2007 the Democratic Alliance wrote to the Auditor-General (A-G) and the then Minister of Safety and Security to request that they implement a case study audit of ten randomly-sampled police stations around the country to determine performance and capacity in various categories.

Such categories would include, among others:

• Accurate categorisation of cases
• Staff vacancies
• Stock maintenance and control (for equipment, weapons and vehicles) 
• Complaints laid against police
• Human resource management efficiency
• Disciplinary action taken against members
• Handling of members of the public in the Client Service Centre
• Skills and capacity levels of all staff
• Assessment of the station by the local Community Policing Forum 

The study was aimed at giving a clear indication of the veracity of the national crime statistics released by the Ministry, as well as the challenges in relation to equipment faced on the ground by the SAPS.

Over the past two years I personally have received a number of reports by whistleblowers at various stations - such as Mountain View in KwaZulu-Natal, claiming that the crime statistics that won the station the top spot in the province as the station most successful in decreasing crime in its area, were false. 

Unfortunately the utterly inadequate report released by the A-G has ignored the need to look into the statistics. The DA calls for a full forensic audit to be performed on every single police station in the country to determine whether or not any of the statistics released by the Ministry have been correct over the past five years.

The A-G audits all public institutions and organs of state, from local government through to national departments. The SAPS should be no different - police stations should also be audited on an annual basis.

The reality is that the public are directly affected by what they experience on the ground at station level. There have been a number of allegations of police turning victims away from police stations and, as a result, the reporting rates appear low for certain crimes. There are also allegations that crimes have been inaccurately captured and recorded, thus resulting in inaccuracies reflected in the statistics. There are allegations that crime statistics are being downgraded and reported as lesser offences to show the police personnel in a far better light.

The DA has waited until 2009 for the A-G to express a formal opinion, and has yet to ascertain why it is that those who compiled the report chose not to investigate the reportage of crime statistics.

Facing one of the highest crime rates in the world, South Africans deserve a government that is open, accountable and transparent. Regularly-released crime statistics play an essential role in the fight against crime, and are particularly helpful to law enforcement officers, who need updated crime statistics in order to respond to the specific localised crime situation in their communities.

Covering up crime won't make it go away, and falsifying crime statistics is itself a crime.  If the Minister, together with his predecessor, is behind his travesty, he must be charged as such.

Statement issued by Dianne Kohler Barnard MP, Democratic Alliance spokesperson on police, July 5 2009

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