Survey shows security guards outnumber police officers
Number of security guards increases six times faster than numbers of police.
The growth in the number of active private security guards over a 15-year period is more than six times that of the number of police officers employed for active police duties, according to the 2013 South Africa Survey published by the South African Institute of Race Relations (IRR) in Johannesburg recently.
The Survey is the annual yearbook covering all social, economic and political aspects in South Africa and has been published since 1946.
In 1997 there were 115 000 active private security guards and 110 000 sworn members of the South African Police Service (SAPS).
By 2012 the number of active security guards had grown to 427 000, or by 270 per cent, while the numbers of their active police counterparts had increased to a comparatively low 157 000, or by 43 per cent.
The IRR sourced the information from the annual reports of the SAPS and the Private Security Industry Regulatory Authority.
“The rapid growth in demand for private security seems to be driven by corresponding rises in house and business robberies, which grew by 100 per cent and 200 per cent respectively between 2003 and 2013,” a security researcher at the IRR, Kerwin Lebone says.
“It does seem as if households and businesses are overwhelmed by crime and are opting increasingly to augment public security services with their own measures.”
Lebone adds that, “Business and house robberies had shown a stubborn increase over the years and have yet to peak, despite overall improvements in the serious-crime rate.
“The security guard/ police officer ratio, which now stands at almost three to one, can be expected to increase if the rising trends of house and business robberies are not curtailed.”
Locally, both the Roodepoort and Florida Police Stations are under-staffed.
Two sources informed the Record that Roodepoort SAPS approximately has just over 250 police officers while the Florida SAPS has way fewer – just over 150. These figures are estimates.
The source who cannot be named adds that, “The shortage of policemen is a general problem and is no secret, but confidential.
“The areas police officers have to cover are too big and there also is not enough human resources.”
