Data & hard experience

POLICE tell us that contact crimes, the nastiest kind where physical confrontation, death or injury are involved, have decreased by more than 17% in the last decade.

This may be so, a favourable statistic in a crime-prevalent society. But the downward trend in crime that acting commissioner, LieutenantGeneral Khomotso Phahlane, spoke of, and his view that the overall picture was not bad, feels out of kilter with what citizens are enduring.

The statistics are probably most useful to the police, and students of our society. Data informs actions, and South Africa’s latest crime barometer can be used to great effect by them.

But the calm statistical discussion on Friday in our guarded Parliament offered no inkling of the fear and depression that crime is inflicting.

It was to be expected that police would highlight improvements and their successes, though they have conceded that contact crimes – the most fearsome types like murder, sexual offences, assault and robbery – remain a problem.

Our entire crime landscape, in fact, remains a huge thorn. If there are improvements in statistics, they probably have as much to do with citizens’ increasing awareness and their multibillion-rand counter-crime measures as diligent policing.

South Africa boasts far better than the international standard in the police-citizen ratio of 1:460. We have 1:358. Yet there were still an average of 51 murders a day; more than 10 of them in KwaZulu-Natal. We have 194 852 police members countrywide, and 1 138 police stations, yet 2.1 million counts of crime were recorded last year.

And there were more than 24 sex offences a day in this province in the last year; 78 grievous assaults, 59 aggravated robberies, and more than 11 home robberies. This is no stable environment. Better or worse, the statistics remain horrid.

Visible policing emerged strongly in the discussion. It is a key weapon against crime. Presence, mobility and fast reaction are essential. We cannot have a flying squad in Durban, for instance, that is hamstrung by lack of resources.