Cape Town – Police detectives were overloaded with work, with each officer handling more than twice the acceptable workload, Parliament heard on Tuesday.
Of the 199 000 officers in the police force, only 25 000 of them were qualified detectives – who had to handle 1 314 957 case dockets.
According to the police presentation, each detective handled 76 cases while the “ideal workload” was between 30 and 40 cases per detective.
The police portfolio committee heard how detectives were failing to deal with crimes successfully because of their workloads as well as a lack of training.
The committee raised concerns that 21 786 laptops had been bought for investigations, but only about 3 000 detectives had received computer literacy training.
The police came under fire from MPs, who voiced their “concern and dissatisfaction” about a lack of progress following the Detective Dialogue held by the committee last year.
Challenges facing the country’s detective service were laid out during the briefing by the secretariat for police. The heads of the detective services and forensics gave presentations and figures.
After the meeting, the committee’s acting chairwoman, Annelize van Wyk, said the Detective Dialogue had resolved that the SAPS, the secretariat for police and the Public Service Administration should establish the actual number of detectives in the country.
“A skills audit should be done based on this number to identify training needs,” said Van Wyk.
It was clear that the SAPS should have a co-ordinated process led by the secretariat, as this was not the case.
“Already there are contradictions in what is presented to us. The Detective Dialogue never said, go outside for training. It said get partnerships with outside bodies into the SAPS to assist with training,” said Van Wyk.
The second urgent issue was recruiting detectives.
“We said, come here with a recruitment policy and training, specialisation and career-pathing. We said let’s focus on detectives. We didn’t talk about overtime allowances and things like that. Those are sideline issues,” a visibly agitated Van Wyk told the meeting.
DA MP Dianne Kohler Barnard added her voice to the dissatisfaction. “I specifically remember that one of the issues that was raised was about the introduction of a basic forensic kit into each vehicle so that we stop having these youngsters walking through and destroying crime scenes. I don’t see any reference to that,” said Barnard.
DA MP Dirk Stubbe said that one of the main problems identified was the lack of detectives. “I also read in the document that the ideal is that 20 percent in a station must be detectives,” he said.
In 2012, the SAPS had about 23 000 detectives out of a total police number of 199 000, which is roughly 8 percent of the total.
Responding, head of forensics Lieutenant-General Khomotso Phahlane said that in terms of crime-scene management, police had now introduced “proficiency testing” for all crime-scene investigators.
“In the past financial year we started that process, which gained momentum following the Detective Dialogue,” said Phahlane.
Police had also supplied additional cellphones and vehicles to members responding to crime scenes.
Acting head of detective services Vineshkuma Moonoo said that detectives were being recruited from members of visible policing who were already experienced in crime-scene management.
He said training partnerships were being established with various training institutions.
Political Bureau
