The killing of policemen has sharply declined in the first five months of this year compared to the same period last year, police said on Wednesday.
The head of the directorate for police safety, Director Riaan van Staden, said 65 policemen were killed in South Africa in the first five months last year. This year 45 were killed, representing a decline of 31% in police murders.
Van Staden said a special programme was launched in the Eastern Cape at the end of May in an attempt to reduce the number of policemen being murdered. He said it was important to get the community involved in similar programmes.
A study of police killings since 1994 revealed that more policemen were murdered while off duty than while on duty. The percentage has stayed more or less the same over the years — between 59 and 68% of all policemen murdered were killed while off duty.
Van Staden said off-duty policemen were more vulnerable to attack because they had no support system or back-up in place in case of trouble. He said they were usually also more relaxed than while on duty which caused them to become easy targets.
On-duty policemen were killed because they thought that they were untouchable and neglected to look after their own safety.
He said allegations that the police did not have enough safety equipment like bulletproof vests were ”nonsense”.
”The fact is that policemen don’t like to wear bullet proofs. It is a sub-culture that needs to be cultivated.”
Van Staden said the process of preventing police killings was a long-term one. A start had been made, but it would take time to get all the necessary safety plans and procedures in place. – Sapa