EMPD set bad example
EMPD officers recently attracted a lot of attention when they visited a shop in Fifth Avenue in the Springs CBD.
According to customers in the shop, as well as those at a neighbouring business, the officers caused a commotion, attracting the attention, when they discovered two boxes of illegal cigarettes, Sevilles, in the shop.
The customers at both shops claim that the officers were shouting and swearing at the two employees of the shop where the cigarettes were found.
The female officer allegedly threatened the two scared shop employees with arrest if they did not contact their employer immediately.
It is further alleged that, when asked where they got the Seville cigarettes, the shop employees said the shop owner had brought them into the shop the previous day.
While this was taking place, one of the hairdressers at the neighbouring salon, Linsay Stewart was outside busy offloading cold drinks.
As she could here the officers yelling and swearing at the shop employees, she took down the EMPD officers’ registration numbers and handed the piece of paper to one of her customers.
“The female officer suddenly came up to me and asked me what was written on the piece of paper,” says Stewart.
She claims the officer then started shouting at them and also used terrible language, took down the customer’s vehicle registration number and said ‘if there is any comebacks, we will know where to trace this to”.
Hairdresser Tanya Engelbrecht alleges that the officers then started taking photos of everyone in the salon.
“We felt threatened when they took those photos,” she says, adding that the officers were very rude and disrespectful.
The officers allegedly, after realising that the owner of the shop wasn’t coming, took a bribe of R500 and left the scene.
According to EMPD spokesman Chief Superintendent Wilfred Kgasago, the officers who were allegedly involved, when they encountered problems at the shop, had requested their supervisor to attend the scene to serve as a witness because of the alleged aggressive behaviour of some of the women on the scene.
“The supervisor has submitted a statement in that regard and the Integrity and Standards Unit will interview the officers implicated,” he says.
He adds that those present at this incident, who feel that the officers acted wrongly and are aggrieved about what happened on that day, should provide their contact details to the Integrity and Standards Unit so that they can be interviewed and their statements obtained for a full investigation.
The unit can be contacted on 011 9997487 or 011 999 0205.
