Shocking stats on lost and stolen police firearms

In the light of the frequency with which crimes are committed using police issued firearms, the number of lost and stolen police firearms recently released were spine chilling – 3576 stolen and 3026 lost which brings it to a total of 6602.

Afriforum, the civil liberty organisation, has recently used the Promotion of Access to Information Act (PAIA) to obtain the statistics of lost and stolen police firearms since 2009 until 2014.

The police have refused to disclosed the calibre of the weapons but Afriforum will now attempt to obtain not only this information but also the status of the investigations surrounding the lost and stolen firearms, according to Afriforum’s Ian Cameron.

The worst five culprits are as follows:

• KwaZulu Natal: 1908

• Mpumalanga 592

• Eastern Cape 360

• Gauteng 352

• Pretoria Police Headquarters: 400

The Record asked both Roodepoort and Florida Police Stations for their figures for the period from 2014 until 2015. Roodepoort spokesperson said ‘they do not have the info’ an they ‘do not keep a register’ while Florida Police Station said they will investigate but first have to get permission from the provincial structure.

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