Police killings destabilise country’s security

Nkosi-Malobane said, “Police killings present the department with an intractable headache and curing such a headache requires more than just sheer determination but in-depth insightfulness uncontaminated by emotions.”

She said the stability of any government is measurable by the efficiency of its law enforcement agencies, inclusive of its policing. Effective policing itself is a by-product of appropriately tailored training to empower officers with the requisite skills to tackle, not only petty criminal conduct but complex, sophisticated and, at times, brutal criminality, she said.

However, Nkosi- Malobane said the recent killings of law enforcement officers required civil society to work closely with the police to ensure that this halts with immediate effect.

She said the duty of law enforcement officers was to serve and protect, and when the contrary takes place, it was reason enough for all members of society to raise the alarm.

“One police killing is one too many. It is disheartening when police officers become victims of violent crime at the hands of heartless criminals, and such acts can never be naturalised,” Nkosi-Malobane said. She stated that police officers in their endeavour to protect society pay dearly with their own lives.

On 31 January, two police officers were shot and killed by a detainee inside the Johannesburg Central Police Station’s holding cells following a hostage drama that lasted nearly five hours. In another incident on 29 March, two policemen were murdered on the N3 highway near Modderfontein.

Nkosi-Malobane emphasised that it would be myopic of society to blame police killings solely on improper or inadequate training, for there is a multi-faceted element to police killings.

“One such consideration includes the inexplicably increasing aggression and brutality of the criminals which can speculatively be attributable to concomitant illegal drug usage, especially nyaope. This marriage, drug viz crime commission seems to be a very deep thorn in the flesh of law enforcement officers,” she said.

Nkosi-Malobane remarked that the use of these drugs seemed to catapult ordinary common criminals into monsters of blood cuddling ruthlessness and mercilessness, capable of taking life unperturbed, without conscience. She said, “Curbing drug peddling and abuse, [as well as] crime reduction, is our primary responsibility and we are determined to uproot these evil deeds.”

She added that these considerations were peripheral issues, and the real issue resides with society which should support law enforcement officers by ceasing to be innocent bystanders and become the eyes and ears of the law.