Thieves run rings round police force

Gangs of thieves are finding it relatively easy these days to just break into what we all assume are highly protected state institutions.

On Sunday, robbers broke into the office of the NPA’s north Gauteng director and took two laptops. It is not yet clear what kind of sensitive information is contained on these laptops.

Only last week, questions around the safety of our crime fighting units were raised when the Hawks’ building in Silverton, Pretoria, was also broken into. It emerged later that several computers had been stolen.

Earlier this year, the office of Chief Justice Mogoeng Mogoeng was also broken into and 15 computers were stolen.

It seems the robbers are targeting information that may be stored on these computers. The three burglaries follow a worrying pattern of thefts at key justice and safety and security departments. This points to the work of a syndicate, and Police Minister Fikile Mbalula admitted to the possibility of an inside job. What we know is that since 2014, five burglaries, that involved two more at our Interpol offices, have taken place and the faceless perpetrators are still out there having the last laugh.

The psychology of habitual criminals is that if they are not stopped in their tracks, they are more likely to come back and repeat the same crime. Clearly these hooligans have exposed our cops as so incompetent that they cannot even solve crime when it happens in their backyard. To have such high-profile brazen crimes targeting the heart of our country’s policing and prosecuting services remaining unsolved is to make a laughing stock of our policing and criminal justice system. Here are bold criminals giving our cops the middle finger and getting away with it. The incapacity of police to solve these crimes further emboldens these criminals to think they are a law unto themselves.

These continued attacks only serve to stoke fear into the hearts of citizens. It is no wonder so many crimes against ordinary people cannot be solved. If the cops cannot protect themselves, who are we as citizens supposed to look up to come to our rescue. Mbalula may have the energy to take to social media and media platforms to condemn these crimes, but we are tired of promises. We need more than words to feel safe.