Cops are too busy guarding VIPs
Officers further alleged that the high number of crashes was due to drivers not getting adequate training.
Johan Burger, a senior researcher with the Institute of Security Studies (ISS) agreed the issues were of management and not resources.
“This issue of police management is a national crisis. Police have the resources but they just do not know how to take care of them.
“Proper inspections need to be done on all vehicles at least once a week. Earlier this year, the acting national police commissioner acknowledged that management was a problem so he set up a management intervention structure to deal with the issue. Keeping this in mind, maintenance and inspections of vehicles should be a priority right now,” said Burger.
He also said there were cases in which broken down vehicles were left in workshops for months without being repaired.
On the issue of VIP security and providing security for diplomats, Burger said: “We have a responsibility to protect our diplomats so this is a difficult one. This does not mean that they are more important than ordinary citizens but boils down to how we manage resources.”
Colonel Ivan Pillay who heads the Durban flying squad, said the unit was trying its best to fight crime and boosting staff morale was a challenge.
He denied that the unit was under-resourced but admitted that the maintenance of vehicles was one of their biggest challenges.
“When the vehicles are running for 12 hours a day, we cannot expect them not to have problems. We let the vehicles rest and then use another set for the new shift. We try our best to maintain them at all times.”
Pillay claimed there were at least eight to 10 vehicles on the road with some of them being posted to highrisk areas and this was sufficient for support. He said the unit was able to respond within five to six minutes if they were in the area. If not, they could take up to 17 minutes.
He said priority was given to the so called trio-crimes: matters of life and death and crimes that were “in progress”.
The lack of morale in the flying squad comes at a time when statistics show that vehicle hijackings, robberies and murders remain alarmingly high.