Clarify police status quo
AS CIVICS from across the Cape Flats, focusing on local government, we thank Alderman JP Smith for the stats about municipal police, with claims of 550 Metro police.
However the City’s safety and social portfolio committee quarterly report reveals 386 operational police.
We hope this wasn’t an attempt to mislead, and thus need clarity on how many are visible police (vispol) patrolling the City’s large geographical area of 2 461km², and how many are administration etc.
These facts are important because if the City employed the recommended numbers, the deficit in Cape Towns’ policing would be eliminated.
Smith’s complaints about criticism of Metro police is strange, considering we call for more municipal police and state that they support SAPS based on constitutional requirements for local government, with guidance for their crime prevention mandate provided by the SAPS Amendment Act of 1998, while Metro police’s anti-gangsterism training makes them the best suited to support SAPS.
Overworked Metro police go beyond the call of duty. Only two municipal police covered over 100km² of densely populated Area South in 2015. Smith should inform how many square kilometres (together with population density) vispol officers must cover daily, what effect this has on morale, if they are receiving just remuneration for three mandates compared to Traffic Services’ mandate, and if outcomes have been independently assessed.
With a Mayco member earning R961 548 p.a. (R80 129pm), total remuneration for councillors at R151 062 989 p.a., we ask how many municipal police could the city employ with a reduction in councillors, substantial cuts of top heavy bureaucracy and salaries?
Instead increase municipal police pay, and/or numbers, including career advancement opportunities: with more ranks as motivation, instead of deploying civilian volunteers with two days’ firearms training into our ganglands.
Being advised, since about 2007, about Metro police’s mandates, we are glad Smith now admits they don’t have an investigative function.
Criminologists, safety strategists etc. inform that security forms part of safety. Evidence proves that provincial and City departments have the biggest safety role.
If there’s confidence in Ceasefire and Shotspotter, a reasonable and objective assessment would support independent testing, considering declarations about recoverability of firearms being challenged by community claims of decoys to enable assassinations elsewhere.
Despite lack of assurance, Smith dismisses concerns about trauma experienced from 3 404 gunshots – showing stakeholders have failed to cease the shooting.
This response increases risks of a lack of impartiality and objectivity to provide assurance. If he supports the role of social development in safety, he should support the call for a social work demand analysis?