`depression’
Marianne Merten
The current spotlight on police brutality has apparently made little difference to the fate of two members of the Cape Peninsula dog unit. Accused of shooting dead two car-theft suspects and endangering the lives of their colleagues during the incident, they have avoided the suspension recommended by the police watchdog, the Independent Complaints Directorate (ICD).
The two white officers, whose names are known to the Mail & Guardian, are now “booked off ill for depression” after initially being assigned to desk work at the Peninsula’s radio control room. Staff there apparently made it clear they did not want the two officers working with them.
A uniformed policeman, however, has been “remedied” (police-speak for reprimanded) for defeating the ends of justice because he picked up spent cartridges after the shooting.
The police decided not to act on the ICD’s recommendation after it completed its investigation into the deaths last month. Said ICD Western Cape head Riaaz Saloojee: “A public statement should have been made by police management.”
The Police and Prison Civil Rights Union Western Cape representative, Superintendent Greg Goss, said the union is angry at the lack of censure. “They must be suspended. The case is very serious.”
Superintendent Arno Widmer said it was decided to allocate the two men to office work after consultation with police lawyers; suspending them meant losing experienced members. “At this stage there are very few facts available to suspend them,” he added.
The two officers apparently opened fire on five suspected thieves sitting in a stationery car which had been brought to a stop in the serene suburb of Gardens after a high-speed chase by two patrolmen. The dog unit arrived at the scene moments after the patrolmen left their car and approached the suspect vehicle. The members of the dog unit – whose unofficial motto is “Bykom [get them]” – fired at least 17 bullets, ignoring pleas from the patrolmen who were directly in the line of fire.
After the shooting, two of the alleged thieves were dead and another was injured. A patrolman picked up the spent cartridges and handed them to the dog unit members. He later claimed he did not know this action amounted to tampering with evidence.
These two deaths are among 25 caused through police action or in police custody under investigation by the Western Cape ICD since the start of the year. A total of 230 charges of assault and other complaints have been filed over the past four months. In comparison, the ICD received 500 complaints during 1998. Nationally, the ICD has investigated more than 1 000 cases since 1997.
Police trainer at the Centre for Conflict Resolution, Eldrid de Klerk, said there are several factors causing an apparent overreaction by police officers on duty. Although compounded stress and frustration over transformation are among the reasons, the inability of police management to set guidelines to implement new policing policies is a major factor.
Said De Klerk: “Policemen feel emasculated. They feel they can’t implement the law. But that’s crazy. A lot of this [frustration] is because of lack of knowledge within the police on how to interpret new policies.”
He explained that the police culture of measuring the success of an officer by the number of arrests he or she makes also contributes to frustrating police. “The culture of bean-counting and arse-covering is part of the culture in which the police dish out.”