Some criminals are cops

While 60 police officers have lost their lives already this year, the number of civilians killed by police action is a staggering 390.

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Johannesburg - The spate of cop killings has taken the tally to 60 since the beginning of the year, making a career in the blue uniform a dangerous choice. But the other face of the police shows them to be aggressors who act as judge, jury and executioner in their dealings with the public.

There have been 234 deaths in police custody and 390 civilians have died as a result of police action.

Nor are police averse to gung-ho military action: there have been 429 complaints of officers discharging their firearms.

These figures were given in the 2013/14 report by the Independent Police Investigative Directorate (Ipid), the body tasked with policing the police.

In the same period, says Howard Dembovsky of the Justice Project SA, 47 people a day were murdered – or 16 914 in that year.

Among the deaths attributable to police action was that of Ficksburg community activist Andries Tatane, who was assaulted during a service delivery protest.

Two years after his death on April 13, 2011, the seven police officers charged with his murder were acquitted by the magistrate’s court.

In another example of police brutality that has become embedded in the national psyche, Mozambican taxi driver Mido Macia was dragged behind a police van in February 2013.

Eight officers have been found guilty of murder.

“The recent cases of people dying at the hands of the police stems from a culture of impunity in the SAPS where many officials do not believe they will be held accountable for brutality,” says Gareth Newham, head of governance, crime and justice at the Institute for Security Studies (ISS).

“For example, none of the officers involved in the unjustifiable shootings at Marikana have been disciplined, nor has any action been taken against them.

“Few police officials are disciplined for brutality, given the extent to which it occurs on a daily basis. There are cases where even after being criminally convicted for assault, officers are allowed to remain in the SAPS.”

Dembovsky says the number of deaths is nowhere near those at the hands of the apartheid police, although he hastens to add that one “is one too many”.

“The police are supposed to protect, not hurt, members of the community.”

Death at the hands of the police was far more horrendous than at the hands of a criminal.

Dembovsky says training and compliance with procedures would stem the tide of rogue police behaviour.

The Ipid report paints a disturbing picture of police behaviour. There were 19 rapes in police custody.

Seventy-eight cases of torture were reported to Ipid in the year under review.

Grace Langa of Ipid says the 2014/15 statistics will be released at the end of this month after they have been tabled in Parliament.

Ipid will take comfort that fewer cases were referred to it than in the year before, 2012/2013.

There were 15 percent fewer deaths in police custody than in the previous year, 10 percent fewer deaths arising from police action and 36 percent fewer complaints about the discharging of official firearm.

“Since 2008-09, the number of people dying as a result of police action or in police custody has been reducing. In 2008/09 there were 912 deaths. In 2013/14 there were 624, a 31.5 percent decrease. The long-term trend is encouraging,” Newham says.

“However, 624 people dying at the hands of the police or in custody is still far too high as it works out to almost two deaths a day.”

KwaZulu-Natal had the highest number of deaths in police custody, 53, while Gauteng had 47, and the Northern Cape had the fewest, five.

KwaZulu-Natal had 106 deaths as a result of police action, Gauteng 105 and the Northern Cape the fewest, nine. The causes of death were assault, suffocation, suicide (hanging), suicide (shooting), torture, and collision while in a vehicle driven by police.

According to Ipid head Robert McBride’s overview, there were 84 convictions in criminal matters and 185 disciplinary convictions. “A sentence of two life terms and 284 years imprisonment was handed down for rapes by a Randburg constable.”

All is not lost, the experts seem to agree.

Newham says training, assessments and accountability are key.

The Sunday Independent