Pedro Ramos is the owner of a restaurant and bar in Fourways and said on 28 February at about midday he called police to come deal with two customers who could not pay their drinks bill because they did not have the funds. The bill was for R175 and according to Ramos, when the police officers arrived at the restaurant they refused to open a case or take statements because the amount in question was ‘too small’.
Ramos said one of the officers seemed to be a reservist but was not wearing a name tag. When Ramos asked him for his name he allegedly refused to give it. The restaurant owner said he then called 10111, the police hotline, to report the incident with the reservist and was told he should lay a complaint at his local police station which was Douglasdale Police Station.
At the station, Ramos said he was told by a police officer in the client service centre that he could not open a case against a colleague and he would need to speak to a senior officer. The only senior officer at the station was the captain shown in the video and Ramos said he had to go to the back of the station to find her.
Ramos said he didn’t think he had approached the captain in an aggressive manor, but when she refused to reveal the name of the reservist to him, he started to film the exchange on his cellphone because he felt that something was wrong. The captain allegedly refused to open a case of misconduct against the officers.
Ramos said he had tried to set up a meeting with the station commander on 2 March, but was put in touch with another senior officer instead. Since then Ramos said another police officer had contacted him to say the station wanted to meet with him, but he had not been told the time and date of the meeting yet.
Read our previous stories,
UPDATE: CPF questions motives of police video author
VIDEO: Police officer allegedly refuses to open misconduct case
