The aggressive policing proposed by the South African Police Service (SAPS) itself has now become a reality, evident in changes such as the instruction to use deadly force and the proposed amendment to legislation on the use of weapons in detaining suspects.
This aggressive approach may allow the level of abuse of police power to escalate. Various mechanisms exist that can prevent such excesses and provide closer scrutiny. These include external ones such as public opinion, civil action and media scrutiny. Within government, the monitoring and evaluation ministry, the Independent Complaints Directorate and the Secretariat of Police provide this function.
Within the police, the national inspectorate (NI) plays this role. This is the internal oversight division of the SAPS responsible for inspections and evaluations of police stations and specialist units. Given the centrality of the NI, its performance is key to determining the level of abuse in the SAPS’s new strategy.
The NI, however, is in a crisis situation. A review I undertook last year on the functioning of the NI demonstrated that leadership problems within the NI, as well as unwarranted structural and operational re-organisations, have resulted in the core function of the division being lost. In 2009 the inspection of only one police station was undertaken. This is inadequate, even prior to the adoption of the new approach.
The extent of the NI’s crisis was such that in 2009 the nine provincial commissioners, as well as the four deputy national commissioners of the SAPS, sought the intervention of the then acting national commissioner Tim Williams. He reversed the restructuring that had been put in place by the head of the NI — and this instruction was subsequently disputed by the NI head.
The seriousness of the dispute required immediate action, but this did not follow. So for the NI it was business as usual (or not at all). Since the intervention no inspections have been done by the national division.
Four months after the intervention by Williams, Bheki Cele was appointed the new commissioner of police. One would hope that with the vigour and optimism with which the new commissioner took over his post the problems within the NI would have been addressed. Six months on and the NI is still as dysfunctional as ever — although there are indications now that the Secretariat of Police will begin looking into the matter.
There are a number of challenges facing the commissioner of police in reinvigorating the NI. These include leadership, staffing and political will. Senior police officers have suggested that the national and provincial inspectorates are dumping grounds for unwanted police members in the SAPS. For example, 10 members of the Mountain Rise Police Station accused of manipulating crime stats have been relocated to the KwaZulu-Natal Provincial Inspectorate — a case of putting the fox in the henhouse.
Members with no moral authority and integrity to support the inspectorate’s objectives are being called upon to examine the extent to which others are observing the required standards. The new positions provide them with unrestricted access to case dockets and other key policing information at stations across the province. The fact that this is permissible reflects the esteem, or lack of it, with which the inspectorate is held within the SAPS. It is difficult not to draw the conclusion that the NI is ineffective by design.
The credibility of the SAPS and of government to deal with the crime problem using more aggressive policing while observing human rights will be undermined if they appear unwilling to keep a close eye on those charged with doing so. Keeping an eye on SAPS requires an effective NI, preferably one independent of the SAPS. However, if the NI is to be located within the SAPS it has to be staffed by officers above reproach.
Omar Bilkis is a senior researcher in the Centre for Justice and Crime Prevention