Acting national police commissioner Lieutenant-General Khomotso Phahlane has said that a recent analysis shows police dockets are often closed or withdrawn prematurely.
Phahlane was speaking at a Institute for Security Studies seminar on policing on Thursday‚ giving a breakdown of the South African Police Service’s (SAPS) “Back to Basics” approach to policing adopted in October.
In the past six months the SAPS has conducted a docket analysis at police stations‚ looking at reasons for the closure of dockets.
“We found in many instances that dockets were prematurely closed‚” Phahlane said.
In some cases‚ dockets were closed when there was a known suspect‚ he added.
Phahlane said that new systems are being put in place to ensure that officers adhere to the basic principles of policing in order to avoid this.
Phahlane also explained his reasons for implementing a restructuring process of a “dysfunctional” police service‚ saying that continuing with the current police structure did not make business sense.
He was responding to those questioning his authority to implement the change as acting commissioner.
Phahlane said that the previous police structure‚ which put a deputy national police commissioner in charge of the entire core business of policing‚ is being replaced with a two-tiered structure.
“The structure that we have [now] established breaks that environment into two with a focus on pro-active policing and crime prevention and a focus on [reactive] crime detection and the investigation of crime‚” he said.
Several other new initiatives have been launched within SAPS since “Back to Basics” was adopted such as a management intervention programme‚ which identifies problems at police stations and introduces interventions.
This differs from previous programmes which pointed out problems but offered no solutions‚ Phahlane said.
New police analysis shows dockets are often closed prematurely
Acting national police commissioner Lieutenant-General Khomotso Phahlane has said that a recent analysis shows police dockets are often closed or withdrawn prematurely.
Phahlane was speaking at a Institute for Security Studies seminar on policing on Thursday‚ giving a breakdown of the South African Police Service’s (SAPS) “Back to Basics” approach to policing adopted in October.
In the past six months the SAPS has conducted a docket analysis at police stations‚ looking at reasons for the closure of dockets.
“We found in many instances that dockets were prematurely closed‚” Phahlane said.
In some cases‚ dockets were closed when there was a known suspect‚ he added.
Phahlane said that new systems are being put in place to ensure that officers adhere to the basic principles of policing in order to avoid this.
Phahlane also explained his reasons for implementing a restructuring process of a “dysfunctional” police service‚ saying that continuing with the current police structure did not make business sense.
He was responding to those questioning his authority to implement the change as acting commissioner.
Phahlane said that the previous police structure‚ which put a deputy national police commissioner in charge of the entire core business of policing‚ is being replaced with a two-tiered structure.
“The structure that we have [now] established breaks that environment into two with a focus on pro-active policing and crime prevention and a focus on [reactive] crime detection and the investigation of crime‚” he said.
Several other new initiatives have been launched within SAPS since “Back to Basics” was adopted such as a management intervention programme‚ which identifies problems at police stations and introduces interventions.
This differs from previous programmes which pointed out problems but offered no solutions‚ Phahlane said.