Police stats still investigated
2011-04-07
A CLOUD of controversy still looms over Paarl Police Station pending an investigation into the alleged tampering with crime statistics. But two years after the cat was let out of the bag, both the provincial police head-quarters and the Directorate of Public Prosecutions are unable to answer questions as to the outcome of the investigation. In 2009 it was announced that more than 50 rape cases, involving children as young as four, were never investigated or written up by police officers. Other police stations which have also been investigated for crime statistic tampering, are Paarl East, Wellington and Mbekweni. The alleged manipulation had taken place between January 2007 and May 2009. According to Max, the manipulation of statistics took place because the stations did not want their crime figures to look bad. During this period of time, Paarl Police Station won numerous awards due to ‘low crime statistics’. During investigations, it had come to light that at least 56 rape cases which had been reported at Paarl police station and surrounds, were only recorded as injuries. Other crimes such as burglaries and fraud were also classified as less serious crimes, and did not reflect on annual crime statistics. A full investigation was launched by the Independent Complaints Directorate into this debacle. This week, spokesperson for the ICD, Moses Dlamini, said that the investigation was finalised and the docket has been sent to the Directorate of Public Prosecutions for a decision. “Further disciplinary recommendations were forwarded to the Provincial Commissioner.”
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