Lack of vehicles hampers EMPD officers’ ability to fight crime effectively
The city is battling attacks on its infrastructure almost daily, while EMPD officers sit on their hands because they don’t have vehicles to get to crime scenes on time.
Several EMPD precincts in the city do not have sufficient vehicles and this undermines the response times of police officers and weakens their efforts to combat and fight crime effectively.
Officers who spoke to the Boksburg Advertiser on condition of anonymity said many of them in the various precincts were hampered in their work by a lack of resources, including vehicles.
Apparently, their vehicles were gathering dust in garages across the city, some for years, because of a lack of funds or delayed payments to service providers.
This situation has reportedly created a backlog in the repairs of EMPD vehicles, which saw many of them grounded.
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These circumstances left many officers without response vehicles when crime is on the rise, especially with the ongoing vandalism of infrastructure across the city.
“The long repair times result in fewer vehicles available at the precincts, with stations such as Boksburg having one marked patrol vehicle to service the whole precinct.
“We are expected to attend to all the complaints we receive, yet we don’t have vehicles to use. We can’t walk to the scenes,” said a frustrated officer.
“Lately, there has been a lot of bashing about not being visible enough and not always available to control traffic. I think we have enough personnel for strategic deployment to the traffic hotspots, but no vehicles are available. We need vehicles to travel to these different spots.”
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In Boksburg, the situation resulted in the EMPD officers travelling together in an unmarked kombi to carry out their roles as traffic officers instead of fighting crime.
This problem has been around for a long time, and the public has complained several times about the lack of EMPD visibility and delayed responses when they report crimes.
In 2021, the Advertiser reported that the Boksburg precinct, in particular, faced a tremendous vehicle shortage, while their grounded vehicles were either unroadworthy or in garages awaiting attention or payments for the contractors.
The African Christian Democratic Party (ACDP) also weighed in on the shortage of police resources. ACDP councillor Tambo Mokoena said the shortage had hampered efforts to fight crime and called on the metro to address the problems.
“The EMPD is a vital organ of the city, which helps fight crime and corruption and brings stability, but it is under-resourced.
“First, there is a shortage of human resources and the EMPD personnel that we have need better working conditions. They need overtime when working after hours and must receive counselling after dealing with traumatic cases.
“Second, the EMPD officers need bullet-proof vests. Third, there is a shortage of vehicles, and many of those meant to be in service are not even roadworthy. Some have engines that overheat, others have only one working headlight,” said Mokoena.
“These three points make it extremely difficult for EMPD personnel to carry out their duties with care and determination. If they must maintain law and order in the city, they need to be taken care of.”
The metro had not responded with comment by publication.
