Police ministry should be lauded for axing bad cops, says expert
Updated | By Mmangaliso Khumalo
The dismissal of more than 2,000 corrupt police officers over the past five years is a feather in the cap of the ministry, says a crime expert.
Willem Els was reacting to the countrywide update on policing operations by the National Police Commissioner Fannie Masemola on Thursday.
During the briefing Masemola revealed that more than 2,000 corrupt police officers have been sent packing by the South African Police Service.
The Hawks in KwaZulu-Natal recently arrested eleven cops for their alleged involvement in extortion-related crimes.
They are accused of soliciting about R100,000 from a business owner after confiscating cigarettes from his business premises and demanding that he pay them to make the case disappear.
Els says the police’s work shows that they are keeping an eye on corruption and other forms of misconduct by officers.
"We can also do without the officials that are really going rogue and not following the letter of the law because they are there in a trust position. It needs to be ensured that they don't go rogue and they don't take the law into their own hands. That is probably why these people are being suspended or dismissed.
"In the first place, extortionists, now all of a sudden, started to feature on the horizon of the politicians, even in Parliament and of the police. It should have been there some time ago. So, we allowed this monster to grow to such an extent that it is almost getting out of hand now.”
Els says the focus on extortion left police with little choice but to respond.
"So, of course, there is now a response and a strong response from police, but you have to look at every case individually and see what the response was. In some cases, when you approach a suspect, the suspect might be passive, and they may surrender, and they can just arrest them.
“But it seems that in the majority of the cases, especially the violent cases where the suspects are armed, that because they lost their fear and respect for the police, they tend to open fire the moment the police corner them.”
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