‘SAPS protects SAPS’
POLITICAL parties in KwaZulu-Natal have their say:
Dianne Kohler Barnard, DA spokeswoman on policing matters, said discipline in the SAPS had collapsed.
“I see members drunk on duty and nothing happens. They are given a slap on their wrist and a letter is put into their file for six months and they are asked not to do it again.”
Referring to the Pietermaritzburg policeman alleged to be drinking on duty, Kohler Barnard said she bet the station did not bother to do a breathalyser test or take a blood sample.
“SAPS members protect SAPS members. I am disgusted at SAPS management. There is disregard for their own regulations. They treat citizens with contempt and do whatever they want,” she fumed.
Kohler Barnard claimed that drunk cops were generally told to “go home and sleep it off”, and if they lost a firearm, were given another one. “There is just no consequence for illegal behaviour.”
Minority Front leader Shameen Thakur-Rajbansi described the incidents as inexcusable.
The lone MF MPL is part of a KZN legislature team visiting various police stations to see first-hand the issues plaguing them.
“The police service really lacks capacity. Police are not well screened (when hired) and unfortunately jobs within the SAPS are looked at as a career to fill unemployment and there are no background checks on police,” she said.
The government had a duty to ensure the well-being of police officers, Thakur-Rajbansi added.
“It is a sad picture throughout the country. In the last 10 years there has been a high suicide rate and serious injuries.
“Psychologically, they are affected by day-to-day duties and many handle it differently.
“Police must be counselled and there must be chaplains from all different denominations counselling police so that they are strengthened psychologically.” NTERNATIONALLY, police officers tend to have a higher rate of alcohol and substance abuse compared to those in other occupations, according to Gareth Newham, the division head of the Institute for Security Studies in Pretoria.
“This is because of the type of stress police are exposed to which is unique to policing. They are constantly exposed to violent crime, murders, children being raped and they themselves are threatened by criminal elements.”
But drinking on duty was not seen as a very serious offence, he said, unlike, for example, theft from a crime scene.
“Based on the evidence of probability, the person is either fined or issued with a warning. Very rarely are they dismissed. It also depends on whether the policeman or woman was a first time offender.”
However, Newham said the problem of alcohol abuse was a complex one in South Africa.
“There are a high number of people who are addicted to alcohol and the police are not exempt from this.”
The only way forward, he said, was for police members to recognise they had a problem and for therapy and support to be provided.
“It is also important for the policeman or woman to know that if they admit they have a problem, it will not be used against them for promotions and so forth. It must be seen as social support and the aim should be for them to not abuse alcohol, or give up totally.”
Professor Doraval Govender of Unisa’s School of Criminal Justice, said officers who behaved in an irregular manner in public should be reported to police management.
Speaking about the recent incident in Pietermaritzburg in which a uniformed officer was photographed slumped in the seat of his vehicle, with what appeared to be a bottle of alcoholic beverage between his legs, Govender said: “This is unbecoming conduct. I’m not sure if this behaviour can be attributed to drunken stupor or if they are trying to give the police service a bad image.”
Consuming alcohol on duty should result in disciplinary action, he said.
South Africans Against Drunk Driving (SADD) founder Caro Smit said policemen, like the rest of the public, could be alcoholics: “So in essence everyone should be properly checked and take a breathalyser if there is suspicion.”
Caro said the police should be setting a good example for other citizens. “They should follow all the rules of the road – not talk on their cellphones, wear their seatbelts, not drive through a red traffic light and not drink and drive.