SAPS criminality audit reveals serious mismanagement

At a presentation to the Portfolio Committee on Police, South African Police Service (SAPS) officials revealed that none of the police officers found to have criminal records during a recently completed criminality audit have been fired. A few weeks ago, the SAPS announced that there were 1448 criminal cops within the police service, ranging from thieves to rapists and murderes. Today they revealed that 306 of these SAPS members had criminal records before they joined the SAPS and 1142 committed crimes whilst in the police. This includes one Major-General. In fact the vast majority of the 1448 are top brass. All are still employed by the SAPS today and have yet to be fired. The 1448 leaves out details of the other 8000 police officers who were excluded from the audit because they had already been fired or their crimes were considered 'petty offences'. Any offence is an offence and the police should be held to a higher standard. Statement issued by Dianne Kohler Barnard MP, August 14 2013