{"id":834445,"date":"2025-08-08T15:06:47","date_gmt":"2025-08-08T13:06:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=834445"},"modified":"2025-08-08T15:06:53","modified_gmt":"2025-08-08T13:06:53","slug":"big-changes-on-the-table-for-cape-town-police","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/government\/834445\/big-changes-on-the-table-for-cape-town-police\/","title":{"rendered":"Big changes on the table for Cape Town police"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>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.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis has filed a proposal as part of the city\u2019s official comment on new draft regulations for municipal policing powers, published by the National Police Minister for public participation.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>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.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cWe absolutely must improve conviction rates for gang, gun, and drug crime in Cape Town,\u201d said Hill-Lewis.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThis is the only way to remove more criminals from the streets of long-suffering communities, where the poorest and most vulnerable are hardest hit.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Although the city is glad that the Police Minister has granted more powers to City officers, it said that the draft regulations don\u2019t go far enough.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The mayor added that the city\u2019s officers must investigate crime to help SAPS and prosecutors succeed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThe 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.\u201d&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He hopes that Acting Police Minister, Firoz Cachalia, will advance the regulatory proposals and support the city\u2019s co-operation with the SAPS.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">What Cape Town wants<\/h2>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-large\"><a  data-lightbox=\"post-image\" href=\"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/hill-lewis--e1754654747799.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"577\" src=\"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/hill-lewis--e1754654747799-1024x577.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-692881\" srcset=\"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/hill-lewis--e1754654747799-1024x577.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/hill-lewis--e1754654747799-300x169.jpg 300w, https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/hill-lewis--e1754654747799-768x433.jpg 768w, https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/hill-lewis--e1754654747799.jpg 1200w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/a><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Cape Town Mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n<p>The city\u2019s proposal would see the new regulations grant investigative powers to City Police for offences linked to:&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>The Firearms Control Act<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Drugs and Drug Trafficking Act<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Prevention of Organised Crime Act<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>National Road Traffic Act<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Certain property-related offences, including theft and house-breaking)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Violent crime, including public violence, robbery, domestic violence, assault, and intimidation of City frontline services\u00a0<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cOur officers need more than just the existing powers to search and arrest \u2013 they need criminal investigative powers to build prosecution-ready case dockets,\u201d said Smith.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cCity 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.\u201d&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Smith said that time-sensitive evidence risks degradation or loss without these powers, as witnesses will not have their recollections captured formally.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The prospects of successful prosecutions are diminished without this evidence.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The city\u2019s data shows that low conviction rates are mainly due to SAPS&#8217;s lack of detectives and investigative capacity. This is only worsened by the slow court and prosecution processes.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u2018We 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.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cGranting only partial powers, as the regulations currently do, undermines the purposes of crime prevention and justice.\u201d&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The city hopes that the power to investigate crime will also be accompanied by the following:&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Power to conduct forensic, ballistic or other forms of examination of exhibits that require expert analysis<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Take witness statements and open dockets<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Integration with the SAPS CAS system and\/or acceptance of an independent system of crime-recording<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Real-time access to SAPS crime stats info and criminal case status updates<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>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.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The city&#8217;s response can be found below: <\/p>\n\n\n\n<div data-wp-interactive=\"core\/file\" class=\"wp-block-file\"><object data-wp-bind--hidden=\"!state.hasPdfPreview\" hidden class=\"wp-block-file__embed\" data=\"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/cape-town-public-comment.pdf\" type=\"application\/pdf\" style=\"width:100%;height:600px\" aria-label=\"Embed of cape town public comment.\"><\/object><a id=\"wp-block-file--media-d31685a4-841f-4725-bc99-6e8ee8a0f7f8\" href=\"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/cape-town-public-comment.pdf\">cape town public comment<\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/cape-town-public-comment.pdf\" class=\"wp-block-file__button wp-element-button\" download aria-describedby=\"wp-block-file--media-d31685a4-841f-4725-bc99-6e8ee8a0f7f8\">Download<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The City of Cape Town is pushing for major policing reforms, with municipal officers given larger resources. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":95,"featured_media":730055,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[2356],"class_list":["post-834445","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-government","tag-city-of-cape-town"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/834445","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/95"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=834445"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/834445\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":834450,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/834445\/revisions\/834450"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/730055"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=834445"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=834445"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=834445"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}