Private security companies should be given more powers so that they could contribute meaningfully to the fight against crime, the Democratic Alliance (DA) said on Monday.
Tabling the party’s anti-crime proposals to the media, DA spokesperson on safety and security Dianne Kohler Barnard said private security companies should be granted the same powers as the police when carrying out arrests and seizures.
”By bringing the private sector to work effectively with the South African Police Service, human resources in the fight against crime can be more than doubled,” she said.
There was a need to review the Private Security Industry Regulation Act as the current legislation did not grant private companies meaningful powers.
”We need to step up their powers of search and seizure,” she said.
However, Kohler Barnard said the DA was fully aware that granting security companies more powers could backfire badly when considering there were unscrupulous companies operating in the sector.
In this regard, she said the DA was calling for the elimination of all ”fly-by-night” security companies.
”Those people must be shut down,” she said.
However, the fact that there were bogus companies within the industry did not mean people should lose sight of the fact there were many reputable firms in the sector.
Other proposals tabled by Kohler Barnard included the reinstatement of police specialist units such as the child protection unit.
”This approach worked particularly well in the past in combating child abuse, whereby the child protection units were able to quickly respond to reports of missing children and deploy their specialist resources towards tracking them,” she said.
Capacitated police stations and updated and accurate crime statistics were equally crucial if the war against crime was to be won.
”If properly implemented within the next three to six months, the DA strongly believes these steps hold the hope of bringing about substantial reduction in the levels of crime in South Africa,” Kohler Barnard said. — Sapa