Police should focus on rooting out corrupt officers

It is beyond bizarre that ordinary members of the public can no longer take a typed-out statement to a police station to have it officially turned into an affidavit… now a police member must copy out the words, by hand, in pen, on to an official form, which is then given the official stamp.

The new procedure was ordered from on high – and is supposedly a way of ensuring that all affidavits sworn at police stations are the real thing.

How this achieves the aim of cutting down corruption is beyond us.

We would suggest that the police hierarchy start focusing its attention on the multitude of its officers who are not only not performing their duties efficiently, but are on the take as well.

In the past week, there has been a wave of arrests within the ranks of the South African Police Service (Saps) in Gauteng.

The alleged offences committed by the supposed upholders of law and order include hijacking and involvement in criminal syndicates.

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One of the most significant arrests was that of the Norwood police station commander, who was taken into custody by the Gauteng Provincial Anti-Corruption Unit last week.

He faces charges of theft, fraud and defeating the ends of justice, linked to a fake operation in which goods worth R165 000 were confiscated and later disappeared.

The chair of parliament’s portfolio committee on police, Ian Cameron, said: “There’s no doubt corruption within the police force is a systemic issue, but it does seem like there is some pushback against it.

What concerns me most is the sheer scale of the problem.” Most disturbing is Cameron’s concern “whether the senior ranks of Saps are clean enough for a meaningful crackdown on corruption”.

Cops committing crimes betray society’s trust and they should be locked up for a very long time.

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