Reporting crime: How to make a difference …

The Police Minister released the latest police crime statistics for the first quarter of 2023 (April 1 to June 30) during a media briefing recently. When comparing this quarter with the same period last year, the stats showed that more women and more police officers were murdered.

The best way to make a difference in the overall crime picture and to bring all the numbers down is to report all acts of crime and to become personally involved in your own safety.

“An important first step in addressing these crime levels is to make sure that every incident is reported to the police. Simply because an incident of a mugging or car theft is reported on a community WhatsApp group does not make it a reported crime,” said the head of marketing and communications at the Fidelity Services Group, Charnel Hattingh.

“Yes, social media platforms are valuable for many reasons. For example, if an incident occurs and is posted it helps to quickly mobilise resources to search for the perpetrators or offer emergency help, and it makes the community aware,” she said.

“Victims must not leave things there though. They must report the incident to the police so that it can be logged as a crime stat.”

Crime statistics help the police strategise and allocate the appropriate resources to suburbs, in conjunction with private security companies and other stakeholders, to protect lives by better-managing crime, curbing trends, and equipping the justice system.

The importance of this is hampered by people thinking the crime was petty and not worth reporting. Some people also say they have no faith in the justice system so ‘what is the point?’

Petty criminals very often become serious offenders somewhere down the line – perhaps years after getting away with bag snatching or shoplifting which nobody bothered to report.

“This is the point of reporting crime. We don’t view any crime or criminal as petty and the public should not either. Crime needs to be reported so that criminals can be apprehended and dealt with in the justice system, or we run the risk of them progressing to more serious crimes before they are caught.

“Remember too that criminals associate with criminals. The arrest of a bag snatcher in your street could lead to a much bigger fish for the police or be linked to other crimes which have plagued the suburb.”

But have South Africans become too desensitised to bother?

Hattingh said it is an unfortunate reality that many people feel lucky to be alive and just want to move on after they have fallen victim to criminals. Trauma is also often a reason victims prefer not to go to the police; they do not want to relive the events by giving a statement.

“We appreciate this and see it daily in our line of work, but we still encourage people to report crime and explain the importance of this to them. Private security companies have resources in place to assist customers who are victims of crime with trauma support and through the process of reporting the crime to the police so that it can be logged as an official crime statistic.”

Unreported crimes have no value to the police or broader society, she added.

“No crime is too small to be reported and every one of us can play a role in curbing crime in this country by reporting crime. The only value a crime has is that when it is reported it becomes intelligence for police and other security resources to use to fight criminals and get them off our streets.”