Thousands of police officers arrested for criminal offences

The Freedom Front Plus says this indicates how deeply rooted crime is in the police.

A total of 5,489 police members have been arrested for criminal offenses since the 2019/20 financial year.

Of the 5,489 arrests, 383 were for serious crimes such as murder, rape and livestock theft.

The Minister of Police, Bheki Cele, recently disclosed these figures to the Freedom Front Plus after a flawed information system was cited a few weeks ago as an excuse as to why the figures were not available.

The Freedom Front Plus said in a statement last week that these figures show how deeply criminality has taken root in the police.

Of the 383 serious crimes for which members were arrested, 84 were for murder, 109 for robbery, 79 for rape, 29 for cattle theft, 4 for transit robberies and 78 for kidnapping.

According to the minister, no police member was arrested for involvement in a farm murder.

Dr. Pieter Groenewald, the FF Plus leader, says: “In his evasive answer in July, the minister said he was ‘fully aware of the serious implications’ of police members’ involvement in crime and especially of its impact on the public’s trust in the police.

He said it was essential that a system “must be put in place” to collect, check and verify all the information about police involvement in crime.

“It appears that it has now been done after the FF Plus insisted that the answers be provided before September 30 (this month).”

Groenewald says it is unacceptable that pressure had to be put on the minister before a system was put in place to regularly update the extent of criminality among police members through a database.

“Without detailed information, no preventive steps can be put in place to prevent crime or to deal effectively with it,” says Groenewald.

He says these figures clearly show that there is a big problem with criminality in the police and the public cannot be blamed if they increasingly lose confidence in a police service that is run by incompetent persons.