Big changes on the table for Cape Town police
The City of Cape Town is calling for its municipal police officers to be granted powers to investigate crimes related to gang, gun, and drug offences.
Mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis has filed a proposal as part of the city’s official comment on new draft regulations for municipal policing powers, published by the National Police Minister for public participation.
In June, the Department of Police released draft regulations for public comment that looked at the powers of the SAPS that may be transferred to municipal police officers.
“We absolutely must improve conviction rates for gang, gun, and drug crime in Cape Town,” said Hill-Lewis.
“This is the only way to remove more criminals from the streets of long-suffering communities, where the poorest and most vulnerable are hardest hit.”
Although the city is glad that the Police Minister has granted more powers to City officers, it said that the draft regulations don’t go far enough.
The mayor added that the city’s officers must investigate crime to help SAPS and prosecutors succeed.
“The city takes 400 illegal guns off the streets per year, but the conviction rate for these cases is just 5% due to our broken criminal justice system. With investigative powers, we can vastly improve this situation.”
He hopes that Acting Police Minister, Firoz Cachalia, will advance the regulatory proposals and support the city’s co-operation with the SAPS.
What Cape Town wants
The city’s proposal would see the new regulations grant investigative powers to City Police for offences linked to:
- The Firearms Control Act
- Drugs and Drug Trafficking Act
- Prevention of Organised Crime Act
- National Road Traffic Act
- Certain property-related offences, including theft and house-breaking)
- Violent crime, including public violence, robbery, domestic violence, assault, and intimidation of City frontline services
JP Smith, MMC for Safety and Security, said it was irrational for municipal officers to be granted incomplete powers related to crime prevention, without the power to investigate.
“Our officers need more than just the existing powers to search and arrest – they need criminal investigative powers to build prosecution-ready case dockets,” said Smith.
“City police are often the first responders at crime scenes, and must have the authority to preserve and lawfully obtain evidence, maintain an unbroken chain of custody, and initiate a prosecutable case file.”
Smith said that time-sensitive evidence risks degradation or loss without these powers, as witnesses will not have their recollections captured formally.
The prospects of successful prosecutions are diminished without this evidence.
The city’s data shows that low conviction rates are mainly due to SAPS’s lack of detectives and investigative capacity. This is only worsened by the slow court and prosecution processes.
‘We believe that our track record has shown that despite limited resources and policing powers, City police have made a massive impact in the fight against crime.”
“Granting only partial powers, as the regulations currently do, undermines the purposes of crime prevention and justice.”
The city hopes that the power to investigate crime will also be accompanied by the following:
- Power to conduct forensic, ballistic or other forms of examination of exhibits that require expert analysis
- Take witness statements and open dockets
- Integration with the SAPS CAS system and/or acceptance of an independent system of crime-recording
- Real-time access to SAPS crime stats info and criminal case status updates
The city has now introduced a special training module to ensure that all its officers have the necessary statement-writing and docket-building skills should the devolution of powers occur.
The city’s response can be found below:
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