Col Marius Lubbe is here to solve crimes
He has 38 years of service in the police, with 37 years as a detective.
Being a police officer is in Col Marius Lubbe’s blood.
His father and four brothers are all police officers, with his brothers all detectives like him.
Lubbe is the new Det Commander for Springs SAPS, having joined the station last month.
He has 38 years of service in the police, with 37 years as a detective.
What does it mean to be a detective commander?
My job is to manage the detectives. I’m the detective head of Springs and I’m to manage the whole branch of which I’ve got eight officers and 52 members. We’re dealing with all the investigation of crime. We don’t deal with crime prevention, although crime prevention is part of our jobs by arresting the suspect. The way I see it, as long as we arrest suspects, we prevent another crime.
Is being a detective anything like what we see on television?
To compare us with the TV programmes wouldn’t be the right thing because we’re getting cases where they open a case docket with a statement and an oath by visiting the complainant and the crime scene. The crime scene is the most important aspect, as you can’t go back tomorrow and have the same crime scene. Also, on TV they will have five detectives on a single case, whereas we have a single detective on 50 cases.
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What makes a good detective?
They must be observant, have proper interrogation skills and must know each person. From interviewing a person, you will know if they are lying or not through body language, but it all comes with experience.
How has being a detective changed over the years?
The technology we have today has greatly improved over chances of getting a conviction. For example, when I first started we didn’t have DNA technology, but now we do, and it has helped greatly to solve crimes like rape, assault and murder.
What must the public do to help against crime?
They must report crime. Without their reports, we cannot investigate and arrest suspects. The visible patrolling teams cannot do their jobs well because they don’t have all the information.
There have been instances where cases have been stalled because the docket has been lost. How does that happen?
That cannot be the case anymore. Each docket is scanned and stored electronically. The court also scans each docket and stores it electronically. If for whatever reason it goes missing, then I open a case and investigate what happened.
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Is there a statute of limitations on reporting a crime?
For contact crimes, such as assault, rape and robbery, there isn’t. I once worked on a case where a woman opened a case of sexual assault against her teacher who had assaulted her while she was in primary school. The incident happened more than 15 years ago, and six other women came forward with their story. We got a conviction and he was sentenced to 12 years in prison.
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