An analysis of past and current police performance has found “urgent, focused action” is required to improve the performance of the South African Police Service (SAPS), Police Minister Nathi Nhleko said on Sunday.

And the police’s slogan in implementing this even has its own hashtag, #CrimeMustFall.

Critical deficiencies and challenges were found during the in-depth study and the majority of these related to fundamental principles of policing which have “been neglected for a long time”, he said.

“There are specific areas of under-performance within the police’s annual performance plan that are linked to the three fundamental functions of policing: crime prevention, crime investigation and crime intelligence.

“This analysis has necessitated the introduction of a back to basics approach to policing, which focuses on every police officer doing the basics of policing and on doing these basics properly and consistently,” said Nhleko.

Visible policing

This approach, Nhleko said, revolved around critical organisations concerns on discipline and the manner in which officers conducted themselves; improved police visibility with more officers in uniform; and the deployment of resources for optimal use of limited resources.

“In addition, those areas of chronic under-performance must be corrected through specific recovery plans targeting the visible policing and detective capabilities in SAPS, thereby linking the recovery plans to the crime prevention and investigation of crime imperatives.”

The analysis, which was conducted by police senior management, also identified the worst performing police stations in terms of reported serious crime incidents and well as incident detection.

This has resulted in these stations seeing the immediate implementation of visible police and detective service recovery plans, Nhleko said.

News24