Durban - Drunk, disorderly and dangerous.
While recent crime statistics show that South Africa continues its free fall into lawlessness, a high number of perpetrators can be found among police officers.
In the last financial year, 5 269 criminal cases were registered with the Independent Police Investigative Directorate (Ipid), which is tasked with investigating crimes committed by police and metro police officers.
While some of the errant cops have been fired, several others have been slapped with heavy jail terms, including life sentences.
Despite their duty to serve and protect, the thin blue line is constantly out of step with its mandate, leaving dozens of officers under investigation for a range of crimes, including rape and assault.
Officers in Gauteng led the way with 984 criminal complaints lodged against them, followed by the Western Cape with 963 and KwaZulu-Natal with 628.
In its 2021/22 annual report, Ipid said the cases included assault, rape and corruption.
The organisation said 53 officers were fired, 239 disciplinary convictions were obtained involving 311 officers while criminal convictions against 20 police officers saw them head to jail for varying periods ranging from eight years to life imprisonment as a result of rape, corruption, police-related death and assault.
A breakdown of the cases against police shows that there were 3 407 matters registered for assault by police; 744 related to the discharge of an official firearm; 410 cases of death as a result of police action, and 233 related to deaths in police custody.
These figures are the number of criminal matters registered with Ipid.
This excludes other matters such as the dozens of social media posts showing uniformed police members drunk while on duty, some too tipsy to stand upright, lying comatose on the side of the road or, most recently, the officer who invaded a soccer pitch at a stadium in Soweto, showing the crowd his amapiano dance moves in full police uniform.
Institute for Security Studies senior police researcher Dr Johan Berger said there was very little accountability within the police, which is why officers felt they had a good chance of getting away with their crimes.
“Those in commanding positions must themselves be held accountable if they do not act against their members. Unless this happens, you will find an increasing number of police officers are not held accountable for what they do.
“It’s a continuing and worsening situation in the police service,” said Berger.
He said public trust and confidence in the police had deteriorated and would continue to do so if the situation did not change.
“When the public doesn’t trust the police, they will not co-operate with the police. In some communities people will take the law into their own hands and hand out their own kind of justice,” said Berger.
Yesterday, the DA’s spokesperson for policing, Okkie Terblanche, said the release of the Ipid, SAPS and DNA Board’s annual reports painted a grim picture of South Africa’s crime status and Minister of Police Bheki Cele’s inability to curb crime.
He said the reports showed that police lost 5 946 members, including 972 detective officials over the last year, and this was evident with the increase in crime compared with the 2020/21 annual report.
Terblanche said these increases showed there were 5 300 more murders, 6 626 more sexual offences, 5 558 more rapes, 4 152 carjackings, 342 more cash-in-transit heists and 8 570 more contact crimes reported at the country’s top 30 police stations.
The Independent on Saturday