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ICD just a toothless dog

Well, tut, tut. The Independent Complaints Directorate has woken up to the fact that 1319 people died in police custody in the past two years.

Well, tut, tut. The Independent Complaints Directorate has woken up to the fact that 1319 people died in police custody in the past two years.

But instead of raising holy hell about this gruesome carnage, the toothless watchdogs noted they would "continue to visit SAPS training colleges to sensitise new police recruits to the mandate of the ICD".

So what?

We hope the good aunties also carry a big box of tissues on these visits so no one gets choked up in this exercise.

The ICD was set up to keep the cops honest and to ensure that the officers do their job. If the watchdogs acted a little more forcefully, maybe - just maybe - our cops would act a little less like the apartheid-era heavies they were supposed to replace.

Police officers have a stressful and risky job. And sometime they need to use deadly force. We accept that.

But there can never be an excuse for an officer with a bad attitude, an inflated sense of superiority and an itchy trigger finger to plug bystanders at a crime scene, or a drunken cop to plough his official vehicle into innocent pedestrians.

This still happens all too often and all too often they get away with murder - because they can.

And that is the ICD's fault.

Get off your ample butts, good commissioners, and fulfil your role as the police watchdogs. It's a matter of life and death.

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