Meadowlands, Soweto, police have found a novel way of dealing with the high number of criminal cases withdrawn by complainants and the attendant sapping of staff morale. They have taken up 18 psychology interns from Rand Afrikaans University to help crime victims come to terms with their plight and make informed decisions about steps to take.
Victim empowerment centres have been established at all police stations to offer counselling or advice to crime victims. However, Meadowlands is the only station in Gauteng that uses trained counsellors from outside the police service in its victim empowerment centres.
The counsellors, together with a local NGO, Vuka Ukhanya Afrika, are deployed at the station’s trauma counselling unit.
The counsellors and the NGO, in conjunction with the police, also run workshops for teachers and pupils, women and children who head households in ways to prevent crime.
According to police, between 70% and 80% of all crimes reported nationally are later withdrawn, most of them by complainants. Cases that have been withdrawn are included in the national statistics because police compile statistics from cases reported, without taking into account that some may have been withdrawn.
National Police Commissioner Jackie Selebi at this week’s unveiling of national crime statistics said police are concerned about the high number of withdrawn cases.
“Cases are opened on Friday and Saturday then put in the case administration system. On Monday they are withdrawn. We currently have no mechanism [in statistics compilation] to deal with these cases so they remain as reported cases.
“Some of the cases are withdrawn because of intimidation, family intervention or reward,” said Selebi.
Minister of Safety and Security Charles Nqakula said his department and the Department of Justice will compile a book on the effects of withdrawn cases on the criminal justice system. Nqakula did not say when the book will be ready.
Meadowlands reflects the national picture, reporting 73% of all matters later being withdrawn. As with the rest of the country, the dominant reason is that victims have reconciled. Other reasons are that state witnesses are not found or they are reluctant to cooperate with police; they have relocated and find it inconvenient to go to court; or they give contradictory or inconclusive statements.
Station commissioner Senior Superintendent Nico Snyman said, for example, 81,2% of rapes reported were between people who know each other. Of these about 80% were later withdrawn.
“Police are humans like everyone. Imagine someone comes to you and says she has been raped. You spend time and resources taking them to the district surgeon. The next thing she tells you that she is withdrawing the charges. How would you feel if you get another rape docket?” said Snyman.
“Society must understand that it shapes the type of service delivery it gets.” He added that the job of the police is to open a docket each time a complaint is laid. “It is only after you have registered a complaint that you can refer a complainant to a victim empowerment centre.”
Snyman said even where victims chose not to go ahead with their cases, the empowerment programme equipped them with skills of how to protect themselves from similar offences and to know what steps to take should there be a reoccurrence.