Did you know all police stations must accept crime reports?

BELLAIR SAPS said last week that they want to remind people they can report any crime, or accident at any police station and should not accept being sent away from a charge office being told they have come to the wrong station.

“People claiming they have been told that need to contact us,” said Sgt Pam Pillay communications officer for the station on Sarnia Road. We want to make sure people know they can report any crime or accident at any police station and should receive a case number or reference number straight away,” she said.

Relief Commander of the community service centre (CSC), W/O Themba Hadebe, who has been working at Bellair SAPS and is in charge of his shift in what used to be referred to as a “charge office”, said he has heard people complaining that they have been sent away from other police stations for a variety of reasons and felt it was necessary to make sure the correct information was made available so that people would know their rights.

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Pillay, who arranged for the Queensburgh News to do an interview with Hadebe on video for the highwaymail.co.za, said she hoped the story would help people feel more able to approach their most convenient police station and prevent people from simply not reporting incidents.

“Every crime needs to be reported, no matter how small it seems,” she said. “We need the information about all and every crime, only then can the information be used to connect suspects with cases and ensure those who are caught are charged with all the crimes they may be responsible for,” said Hadebe,

Asked about how cases reported in different areas are dealt with, Hadebe said the procedure is that the person making the complainant is initially given a case or reference number by the SAPS office they report the crime to.

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“They get a CAS number, or at least a manual reference number if the system is offline and it has to be entered in the SAP 441 book which every CSC has as a back-up for when the computers are down or there is a power failure,” he explained.

“When the case is then sent to the branch of SAPS that will be dealing with it further, the complainant is then sent another CAS number from the branch where the case is being investigated.”

This story initially appeared in the sister publication of highwaymail.co.za, Queensburgh News in the 13 September issue.

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