EDITOR – The killing of police officers is nothing new, it has been going on forever worldwide.
The two cases below really emphasise what I am about to outline.
The first is the one where a police officer was recently shot and killed at the Pinetown SAPS, in a secure area of the station, while booking a suspect. What makes it worse it that the suspect had brought the firearm into the station with him, so obviously he was not searched and was not handcuffed.
Secondly, I was at Hillcrest SAPS station a few years ago to report a crime. I was taken to this small room behind the front counter to make my statement. In this room was one officer and five, yes five, suspects standing against the wall behind the only officer in the room. None of these suspects were handcuffed. It would have been no effort at all to overpower this one officer, disarm him and then dispose of the three in the charge office. It goes without saying that I refused to remain in that room and left immediately.
The blame lies both with the lawmakers in parliament and with a certain segment of police officers.
Firstly, the lawmakers should have passed a law years ago that makes it a serious crime to kill a police officer in the performance of their duties, and the accompanying penalty should have been something in the line of a mandatory minimum of 30 years (without the possibility of parole) on top of any sentence for the underlying crime.
Secondly, I have seen police officers violate all policies, procedures and common sense, please bear in mind that I have personally witnessed everything I list below;
When stopping a vehicle do not approach the vehicle from the front, always stop behind the vehicle and approach from the blind side.
Always handcuff any suspect before transporting him / her in any vehicle, even if they are in the back of a van.
Always thoroughly search a suspect before transporting him / her to the station, then once at the station they should be searched once more by another officer.
Keep suspects handcuffed until they are placed in a cell, except for necessary procedures such as fingerprinting etc. Then only remove the handcuffs once they have been searched once more and there is more than one officer in attendance.
Those are just a few transgressions that I have personally witnessed that will get officers killed. The officers that do not follow policies, procedures and common sense are in the minority, but they are the ones that will get themselves killed because they are giving the suspect the opportunity. They are also the officers that look at being a police officer as merely a job and a pay-cheque which it is not.
Being a police officer is a calling. The good officers are the ones that have always wanted to be police officers since they were young kids, they definitely do not view it as just a job, for them it is a calling. When the bullets are flying and everyone is running away, these officers are the ones running towards the gunshots.
I am also amazed as to how many police officers wear the uniform without being armed. Police officers should never wear the uniform if they are not armed, they are simply presenting themselves as a target. SAPS management should ensure that there are facilities at every station where each officer has a locker which enables them to change into and out of uniform and the uniform can remain at the station in the locker.
Police officers should also receive extensive training in weapon retention, no one should ever be able to take your weapon from you while you are still alive.
Being a police officer is akin to being an airline pilot, they are careers where you cannot take short cuts, and if you do you will die.
Training, training, training and more training.
Rick Crouch
Private Investigators and Digital Forensics
