The police response time to crime calls ranges from 30 minutes — in two-thirds of cases according to some studies — to five hours.
The findings in the Centre for the Study of Violence and Reconciliation’s policing report highlight the extreme variations between police stations. Response times greatly affect public perceptions of police performance, the report finds.
Of respondents in a 2003 victim survey, 45% said police were doing a poor job, with a third insisting they did not react quickly enough. Only a quarter said the police responded promptly.
A 2004 survey of 2Â 000 people relating to 224 police stations found officers responded to a quarter of calls within 10 minutes, two-thirds of calls within 30 minutes and 80% of calls within an hour.
Country areas are worse. A survey in rural Limpopo found that it takes between four and five hours for police to reach crime scenes. A fifth of the callers complained that the police failed to appear at all.
Factors in the delays, the report says, include distance, the station’s workload, the time of day that the call is received and the quality of supervision and discipline in flying squad units and stations.
Police training materials recommend a six-minute response to ‘high-priority†calls: crimes in progress and those requiring instant action from the flying squad or nearest police vehicle.
Crimes that pose no immediate threat to the caller, other people or property must be responded to within 15 minutes. Non-urgent crimes, including drunkenness and loitering, have a 25-minute maximum reaction time.
The report also notes, paradoxically, that some callers have had more success by contacting a police station directly than by dialling call centres at the emergency number 10111. Out of 43 police areas, 24 have call centres. A 2002 survey reveals that half the calls to police stations are answered immediately, compared with 36% of calls to 10111.
By 2010, the police service hopes to replace all call-centre equipment to record each call and enable agents to talk to the dispatcher and hear the caller simultaneously.
The report says response time standards should be set for individual areas rather than nationally.