The Bloemfontein flying squad has been ”beefed-up” with a new leadership team following allegations of members watching pornography on TV instead of answering duty phones.
Superintendent Sam Makhele on Wednesday said Free State police Commissioner Amon Mashigo made the changes during the recent restructuring process within the police.
”The commander [previously a Superintendent] is now a Senior-Superintendent and he now has sub-section heads who will also take command to make sure there is stable command 24 hours at the component.”
During the restructuring, various police officers from special units were re-deployed to police stations at grassroots level.
In October last year, African National Congress member of the National Council of Provinces, Neels van Rooyen, accused the unit of ignoring telephone calls while watching a movie.
He alleged that nobody answered his daughter’s calls when she tried to contact police about robbers breaking into her house.
Van Rooyen told a local newspaper at the time that his wife had also phoned the flying squad unsuccessfully, following which he drove to the unit’s offices at 2am.
”Flying squad vehicles stood outside and I could walk through the office building without anybody stopping me,” Van Rooyen was quoted as saying.
”Inside three police officers sat in front of computers while phones were ringing.”
He also saw that they were watching one of those ”late night pornographic programmes on e-tv”.
Makhele on Wednesday said the telephone system had been upgraded after complaints that it was always congested.
”It was expanded to include a voice-recorded information system, which will inform the caller that their call would be answered.”
He said Commissioner Mashigo had reported the new developments to Van Rooyen.
”It seems he is happy with the response.”
The steps taken by the commissioner at the flying squad showed that police were committed to better service delivery, Makhele said.
He also urged people to join their Community Policing Forum, through which problems such as Van Rooyen had would have been addressed earlier. — Sapa