VIDEO: Police officer allegedly refuses to open misconduct case
DOUGLASDALE - Shocking footage has been added to LiveLeak.com which allegedly shows police officers refusing to assist a resident, who wanted to open a case against a police officer, at the Douglasdale Police Station, after he allegedly refused to identify himself.
Footage of police refusing to identify themselves was added by a user, identified only as Pmramos three days ago. He claims the video was shot on 28 February. In the description of the video, Pmramos claims the situation started after a customer failed to pay his bill at a local establishment.
Watch the video below:
“I then requested the names of the officers as they didn’t identify themselves upon arrival. One officer, a reservist, gave his name, but the other officer who was wearing a bulletproof vest refused to identify himself, ” Pmramos said.
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“I took my phone to start recording, however he tried to take the phone out of my hands so I failed to record this episode. I do have CCTV footage of the struggle though,” he explained.
Pmramos said the unidentified officer started calling him drunk. “I did ask him to do a breathaliser test on me; this was also refused.”
Pmramos said he requested both officers to present themselves at the Douglasdale Police Station so he could take the matter further.
Once at the station, Pmramos said he queried who he should speak to in order to lodge a complaint against the alleged misconduct of the officers. “Some officers pointed me out to the captain that was in charge of the shift.”
“When I approached the captain to explain the situation, she continuously refused to identify the unidentified officer.”
Pmramos said that it was at this stage that he started recording.
An update on the post said that after exposing this situation to the police station, a case to investigate the officers would be opened.
Founder of eblockwatch, Andre Snyman said “This is very disheartening for the dedicated police officers and the Community Policing Forum members who work thanklessly to try and lift the standard of policing at the police stations. The Douglasdale CPF and chairperson have gone to great lengths to introduce so many checks and balances to ensure that the public receive fair treatment and professional service, but to be let down by some officers is a shame.”
Warrant Officer Balan Muthan, head of communications for Douglasdale Police, said he was unaware of the incident before watching the video but questioned the validity of the video since he could not see a date stamp on it. “If this did indeed happen as the resident who posted the video said it did, Douglasdale police condemns behaviour of this kind from our members because we are hell-bent on service delivery.”
He explained that, as can be seen in the video, the resident was very angry and aggressive and was not explaining himself properly. “Without having all the facts and being spoken to in an incoherent manner, the captain in the video was well within her rights to withhold the reservist’s name and force number,” he said.
“When reporting a crime, residents need to calm themselves down and speak politely to officers in order to get the help they need.”
