Police Watchdog needs sharper teeth

The Independent Complaints Directorate (ICD) annual report has revealed that the SAPS ignore 96.1% of their ‘recommendations.  This is nothing short of utter contempt.  I shall be writing to the Head of the ICD, Francois Beukman today to find out when the legislation to give the ICD a new name - the Independent Police Investigative Directorate (IPID) and sharp enough teeth to finally force the SAPS to hold police officers who break the law accountable for their actions will be implemented.

The ICD report reveals that only 88 SAPS departmental convictions resulted out of 2 261 ICD recommendations to hold internal disciplinary hearings,

This is a conviction rate of 3.9%.

Some of the extremely weak penalties issued against SAPS members for these convictions include:

• Written warning to a member found guilty of grievous bodily harm
• Written warning for common assault
• 6 months suspension for attempted murder
• Verbal warning for intimidation.

It goes without saying that such penalties are unlikely to be a major deterrent to serious violence and misconduct in the SAPS.

Further, of the 501 recommendations made to the Director for Public Prosecutions only 59 convictions were made. That is a conviction rate of 11.7%.

The level of criminality and misconduct in the SAPS stays unacceptably high, with 5 869 complaints received in 2010/11 alone. Given that the SAPS are not required to report crimes committed by the SAPS, that number could be higher

Having had my Private Member's Bill to give the ICD teeth rejected by the ANC, I welcomed the creation of the legislation that will transform the ICD into the Independent Police Investigations Directorate (IPID). This body will be empowered to sentence SAPS members and not just make recommendations. Similar IPID bodies across the world have had great success in keeping the police clean and the government would do well to follow international best practice in this regard.

As these statistics show, the legislation passed in the National Assembly a full year ago to create the IPID needs to be implemented without further delay. The SAPS must no longer be allowed to treat suggestions that SAPS members be called to book for their criminality, with contempt.

Statement issued by Dianne Kohler Barnard MP, DA Shadow Minister of Police, September 29 2011

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