Kempton SAPS detectives battle with hundreds of cases each

An oversight visit at Kempton Park SAPS revealed there is a lack of resources at the police station.

Mike Waters, DA deputy chief whip in parliament and Lethabong constituency head, together with DA ward councillors Jaco Terblanche, Gideon van Zyl, Desmond Mckenzie and Simon Lapping, sat down with the station commander, Brig Samuel Maredi, Lt Col Emmanuel Ndaba and the detectives’ second-in-charge, Col Matome Masha.

It was established during the visit that, among other things, there is a great lack of vehicles at the station.

“The DA was informed that the station has six sectors where two sector vehicles, per sector, are supposed to be patrolling at any given time,” said Waters.

“This means 12 sector vehicles are supposed to be available all the time. However, the reality is sharply different with only four sector vehicles being available at any given time. This is a 67 per cent shortage and is unacceptable.”

Maredi also mentioned a shortage of officers in visible sector policing: “There are 80 officers to patrol the sectors, staff the customer care centre (charge office) and crime office. We need 60 more sector police officers.”

Waters and the councillors were taken aback at the critical 42 per cent understaffing.

“The councillors and I were gobsmacked at these shortages and to make matters worse, the detective branch is also severely under-resourced,” said Waters.

Water’s statement was motivated by the statistics given by Masha who said the station has 38 investigating officers investigating 8 500 cases.

Ndaba added: “The highest docket carriers are people dealing with murder cases. Three detectives, who investigate murders and inquests, have 500 cases each and the other detectives (35), who deal with various other cases, have roughly 200 cases each.”

“In addition to having these heavy caseloads, the entire detective division (which consists of 74 people) only has 11 functioning vehicles and six at the mechanical school,” said Waters.

“So, if all the vehicles were allocated to the detectives, it means that on average there are over three detectives to a vehicle. Then the other members of the detective branch also need vehicles, so in reality, at least four detectives are sharing one car. This is totally unacceptable.”

Waters also said he would take the matter to parliament.

“How on earth does the minister expect police officers to combat crime and bring perpetrators to book when the police have both hands tied behind their backs?” asked Waters.

“What we need is a properly resourced police service that is professional and trained properly.”