Doctors robbed in graveyard refuse to become ghost statistics

WHEN brothers Matthew and Michael Pravetz were attacked and robbed in a graveyard, they almost became crime statistics. Except, they didn’t. Police who arrived on the scene at Maitland cemetery in Cape Town refused to take a statement, open a case or take down their ID numbers.

Instead, they told the two doctors to “go look for [their] stolen goods in Cash Crusaders”.

Three officers are now being investigated in the case.

The American brothers are concerned that the police are trying to keep crime statistics low by refusing to open cases, and have taken their case to the US consulate general in Cape Town.

Matthew is a professor from New York Medical College and was in South Africa on holiday, while Michael, who has dual citizenship, is a doctor in emergency units where he has treated countless victims of violent crime — people whom he fears “might just accept it if their cases are never officially recorded”.

The brothers had gone to look at historical graves while waiting for paint to be mixed at a nearby shop.

A man with a knife overpowered them and made off with property including a camera.

According to the Victims of Crime Survey released by Stats SA late last month, satisfaction with police nationally has declined from around 64% in 2011 to 59% in 2016.

Lizette Lancaster, of the In- stitute for Security Studies, said the problem of statements not being taken lay in how the performance of police stations was measured.

“We have heard that on occasion, some stations don’t open dockets when requested.”

She said that at station level, “personnel often think it reflects badly on them if crime is high”.

SAPS spokesman Brigadier Vish Naidoo described a failure to take statements as a “gross dereliction of duty” that was in contravention of the Police Act. And Brigadier Sally de Beer said that without accurate statistics, the police could not conduct a “crime trend analysis, which informs operations and the deployment of resources”.

Being ignored by the police was a “very frustrating experience”, said Frances Dupierry, 65, who was attacked in front of police by tenants who were renting her house in Claremont, Cape Town.

“They said and did nothing,” she told the Sunday Times, “so I went straight to the Claremont police station to lay a charge of assault.”

There, personnel on duty refused to take a statement, she said, and did not even look up from their computers.

She was told she must have provoked the tenants, and no case was opened.

Western Cape police spokesman Captain FC van Wyk said three SAPS members stationed in Kensington had been identified and “departmentally charged in the Pravetz case”.

Ellen Masi, of the US con- sulate general, confirmed it was looking into the case and said the consulate general “stands ready to provide appropriate assistance” in such instances but that it could not comment further due to “privacy considerations”.

Loss of faith in the police could lead to vigilantism, said Western Cape police ombudsman Vusi Pikoli.

His office had seen “an overall increase in all categories of complaints” and, “when members of the public lose faith in the police, they start taking the law into their own hands, and we cannot have this”.

Police often think it reflects badly on them if crime is high If public loses faith, they take the law into their own hands