NEARLY 150 Ekurhuleni Metro Police officers underwent an intensive course in effective crowd management.
Faced with challenging situations when people involved in protests do not act within the law, the SA Police Service has embarked on a project of ensuring that all law enforcement officers are skilled in terms of effective crowd management.A situation of only Public Order Policing members being the ones trained in crowd management is the thing of the past – henceforth, all police and metro police officers will undergo crowd management training in future.
The SAPS Academy in Pretoria commenced with this intensive three-week programme in early March. The first group completed the rigorous training on March 28.
Chief Supt Wilfred Kgasago, metro police spokesman, said 144 EMPD officers came out well-equipped with the know-how of protecting those protesting peacefully and tackling those who were out to cause mayhem during protests. They were part of around 1 000 police and metro police officers from around the country who completed the three-week course. Training of platoon commanders is part of the programme.
Another 46 EMPD officers formed part of the group that completed their training on April 17. The Minister of Police and the Commissioner of Police emphasised the importance of having each and every officer of the law trained in crowd management. The project is on-going.
“The greatest challenge is for law enforcers to respond to serious provocation, intimidation, sometimes with public violence and with elements of criminality. Officers have to tackle those manifestations within the spirit and context of a community oriented policing model and the Bill of Rights which requires a realistic balance between acknowledging the rights of citizens to demonstrate versus the police’s need to ensure peace and stability,” the Minister of Police, Nathi Mthethwa, said.
Modules include learning about how the Constitution and the Bill of Rights impact on the police’s approach to crowd management. The training is aligned with police officers working at Public Order Policing units receive.
The programme includes training on the legal instruments affecting crowd management with particular emphasis on the Regulation of Gatherings Act, the Dangerous Weapons Act and use of force prescripts; the importance of and approaches to negotiation tactics and strategy and tactics to be used in crowd management.
