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Police Minister Nathi Nhleko has released the festive season crime stats following policing operations launched countrywide in October.
Nhleko was adamant yesterday that the police are slowly but surely winning the war on crime. The campaign focused on “six pillars” at the centre of the police’s approach which are tackling aggravated robberies, border security, law enforcement with specific focus on firearms control, liquor, second-hand goods and safety at sports and recreational events, crime against women, children and people with disabilities, bylaw enforcement and road safety enforcement.
We take a quick glance at the numbers presented by the minister:
» 83 479 persons were arrested in South Africa
» The arrests were effected during 705 639 policing operations
» 1 060 firearms and 8 691 rounds of ammunition were seized
» 2 443 886 searches were conducted
» 669 vehicles were seized
» A large quantity and variety of drugs were seized, for example in the Western Cape, on November 18 2016, a drug dealer was arrested with 31 000 mandrax tablets.
In terms of “Community-Reported Crimes”, which are broken down into four categories, the good news prevailed as there were decreases in all categories, namely:
» Contact crimes decreased by 5.3%
» Contact-related crimes decreased by 5.4%
» Property-related crimes decreased by 2.2%
» Other serious crimes decreased by 5.3%
“Crimes detected as a result of police action” are expected to increase, as this reflects a direct correlation between police actions/operations and arrests. These are broken down into illegal possession of firearms and ammunition, drug-related crimes, driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs and sexual offences detected as a result of police action.
» In this category there was an overall increase of 8.4% which is extremely positive news as it indicates that targeted police operations have yielded results in these areas.
Contact crime, which includes serious offences such as murder, attempted murder, common assault, assault GBH and aggravated robbery:
» Between the 2014/2015 and the 2015/2016 third quarter (the period under review), there was a 4.4% increase in this category.
» However, between the 2015/2016 and 2016/2017 third quarter (during the recent Safer Festive Season operations) there was a significant 5.3% decrease in contact crimes.
» 4 953 newly graduated police constables were deployed to shopping centres and malls.
Source: SAPS
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