{"id":20824,"date":"2013-07-01T17:14:41","date_gmt":"2013-07-01T15:14:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/proposal-to-rein-in-security-firms\/"},"modified":"2013-07-01T17:14:41","modified_gmt":"2013-07-01T15:14:41","slug":"proposal-to-rein-in-security-firms","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/proposal-to-rein-in-security-firms\/","title":{"rendered":"Proposal to rein in security firms"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>        \t                                <!-- Main Editorial Image --><br \/>\n                    \t\t\t      \t\t\t                                      <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-content\/plugins\/rss-poster\/cache\/f9323_1276116559.jpg\" alt=\"IOL pic may29 police badge generic\" title=\"\" class=\"pics\" \/><\/p>\n<p class=\"captions_credit_article\">Independent Newspapers<\/p>\n<p class=\"captions\">File photo<\/p>\n<p class=\"captions\">\n<p class=\"related_articles\">Related Stories<\/p>\n<ul class=\"menu_tab_lists_related\">\n<li><a class=\"related_articles\" href=\"http:\/\/www.iol.co.za:80\/dailynews\/news\/single-police-force-unconstitutional-says-da-1.1539143\">Single police force unconstitutional, says DA<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><!--PSTYLE=WT Web Text--><\/p>\n<p class=\"arcticle_text\">Durban &#8211; Security companies may have their wings clipped as the Ministry of Police looks to redraw the line between the state and the private security sector which, it says, has become blurred. <\/p>\n<p class=\"arcticle_text\">The Green Paper on Policing, which was drawn up by the Civilian Secretariat for Police, and is open for public comment, has called for \u201cstrong checks and balances\u201d on the private security industry. <\/p>\n<p class=\"arcticle_text\">\u201cThe private security industry is increasingly performing functions which used to be the sole preserve of the police,\u201d the document says. <\/p>\n<p class=\"arcticle_text\">\u201cThis has, and will continue to have, a serious influence on the functioning of the criminal justice system as a whole. <\/p>\n<p class=\"arcticle_text\">\u201cWhile it is true that private security does and can fill certain vacuums, it can never replace the public police.\u201d <\/p>\n<p class=\"arcticle_text\">However, security companies have taken issue with the claims that they are taking on the role of the police and that their involvement in fighting crime is negatively affecting criminal justice. <\/p>\n<p class=\"arcticle_text\">Gary Tintinger, the KZN vice-chairman of the Security Association of South Africa and marketing manager of Blue Security, said he did not know what functions the police believed private security had taken over. <\/p>\n<p class=\"arcticle_text\">He said it had not replaced the police, but offered an additional service to local police stations, which were often under-resourced. <\/p>\n<p class=\"arcticle_text\">\u201cBlue Security and every security company that operates stringently within the parameters of the laws impacting safety and security \u2013 such as the Criminal Procedures Act and the Firearms Control Act \u2013 enhance the work of the criminal justice system.\u201d <\/p>\n<p class=\"arcticle_text\">Tintinger added that the focus should rather be on strengthening the role of the private security industry. <\/p>\n<p class=\"arcticle_text\">The Green Paper also says that apart from the private security industry being profit-driven, it is concerning that private security takes \u201cpower away from the state and does not distribute it more equally throughout society\u201d. <\/p>\n<p class=\"arcticle_text\">Other concerns are that private security shifts responsibility for social control and order away from the state and that the industry is less constrained by statutory limitations, which makes it more likely than the police to infringe on the rights of the people. <\/p>\n<p class=\"arcticle_text\">However, Johan Burger, a senior researcher at the Institute for Security Studies, said this was \u201cabsolute nonsense\u201d because private security did not have the powers to overstep its mandate. <\/p>\n<p class=\"arcticle_text\">\u201cThere seem to be tensions and I do not know why, but there seems to be some kind of political interference\u2026 So now they conjure up images of well-armed security companies roaming the streets ready to pounce at any time.\u201d <\/p>\n<p class=\"arcticle_text\">But Burger added that it was important for regulation of the industry to be improved, with operators registered and legitimised. <\/p>\n<p class=\"arcticle_text\">Alison Bull, spokeswoman for Chubb Security, said that Chubb protected and serviced paying clients. <\/p>\n<p class=\"arcticle_text\">\u201cOur duty is not to protect the man in the street,\u201d she said. \u201cThat is the function of the police. <\/p>\n<p class=\"arcticle_text\">\u201cWe are not involved in traditional policing, therefore no checks and balances need to be put into place.\u201d <\/p>\n<p class=\"arcticle_text\">The public is urged to comment on the Green Paper by July 24. Correspondence can be sent to the Civilian Secretariat for Police, Private Bag X922, Pretoria, 0001. <\/p>\n<p class=\"arcticle_text\">bronwyn.fourie@inl.co.za <\/p>\n<p class=\"arcticle_text\"><strong>The Mercury<\/strong> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Independent Newspapers File photo Related Stories Single police force unconstitutional, says DA Durban &#8211; Security companies may have their wings clipped as the Ministry of Police looks to redraw the line between the state and the private security sector which, it says, has become blurred. The Green Paper on Policing, which was drawn up by [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[8275,953,2143],"class_list":{"0":"post-20824","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-south-africa","7":"tag-durban","8":"tag-newspaper","9":"tag-the-mercury","10":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20824","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20824"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20824\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20824"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20824"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20824"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}