Police refuse to take fingerprints

BONAERO PARK RESIDENT writes:

I wish to express my disappointment in our police services in Kempton Park.

My house got broken into three times in the six years I have been living in Bonaero Park.

On all three occasions the police were asked to take fingerprints and refused to. The answer was that they would never catch the person. Three tekkie prints were clearly visible on my front door.

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After showing the police, hoping they would act, the constable told me it was a tekkie print and they would not take the prints. I was visited by the crime department the following day about fingerprints and I told them what we were told by the constables who were on the scene.

So, I just want to know where we stand with the police in such cases?

Capt Jethro Mtshali, Kempton SAPS spokesperson, replies:

We too are disappointed with the constable who alleged that with the tekkie prints the suspect could not be arrested.

We want to emphasise that in all incidents of house breaking, our fingerprint unit is summoned to the scene, irrespective of prints being found or not.

In this incident we want the victim to lodge a formal complaint with case numbers as to establish how far the investigations have gone.

We also want to reiterate that no one can dictate when and how a suspect will be arrested and when an incident will be investigated. The primary function of the police is to ensure that all perpetrators of crime are brought to book and fairly prosecuted.

Once again we apologise for the alleged treatment the victim was exposed to.