Cape Town - They are supposed to make us feel safe, a refuge to turn to, to report crime and get help, but police stations across the province are themselves the victims of crime.
Police Oversight and Community Safety MEC Reagen Allen has painted a horror picture of police stations being burgled and vandalised, saying that from 2018 to date, 81 police stations across the province had either been burgled or vandalised.
More alarming was that only 76 of 151 police stations were fitted with CCTV cameras.
Allen was responding to a series of written questions from standing committee on community safety chairperson Gillion Bosman (DA) with respect to the safety of police stations as well as the installation of CCTV cameras at police stations across the province.
Of the 81 police stations, 19 were burgled and 62 were vandalised. He said the crimes were registered as burglaries on business premises and malicious damage to property, as well as arson, and altogether the damage came to approximately R256 432.
The police said criminal cases were opened in all 81 instances and these led to 11 convictions, with one not guilty finding. They said that 41 cases had been withdrawn, seven were currently in court and 21 instances had gone undetected.
In relation to the installation of CCTV cameras, Bosman had wanted to know whether every police station in the province had them and how many had been installed during every financial year from 2018/19 to date.
Among the 76 police stations with CCTV cameras installed were the top 10 police stations in the province where the most murders were reported. Most of these police precincts are in close proximity to one another and are mainly on the Cape Flats.
They are Mfuleni, Khayelitsha, Kraaifontein, Delft, Nyanga, Gugulethu, Harare, Philippi East, Samora Machel and Mitchells Plain.
In February the Western Cape’s crime statistics for the third quarter of 2022 showed Mfuleni police station was ranked first in the top 30 worst precincts for murder in the country.
It recorded 89 murders between October and December 2022.
This was an increase of 32 cases from the October to December 2021 reporting period. Mfuleni was followed by Delft, Nyanga, Kraaifontein and Harare.
Others around the province with CCTV cameras installed included George, Thembalethu, Grabouw, Darling and Tulbagh. Of the 76 stations equipped with CCTV cameras, 55 got theirs during the period Bosman’s question probed.
Seven were installed in 2018, 16 in 2019, 10 in 2020; only two in 2021 in Cape Town central and Mitchells Plain, and 20 in 2022.
Allen said that so far none of the installed systems had been reported broken, but that the average cost for replacement of a complete system would be R200 000.
Bosman also wanted to know whether the CCTV cameras were affected by load shedding and, if so, what plans there were to equip them with an uninterrupted power supply.
The police said: “The 2022/23 CCTV installation includes a twohour UPS system. Previously installed systems are dependent on generator power supply.
“A project to fit all police stations with power inverters is under way to ensure CCTV cameras will function throughout the duration of each load shedding session.”
Bosman also wanted to know whether any police stations had used the services of local law enforcement and/or private security to protect them and to assist with crimes that occurred on or near the stations’ premises during the period from 2018 to now.
To this, the police responded in the negative and said that should a situation such as protest action at a police station arise, the primary functionary would be SAPS station personnel and the public order policing unit.
“Where additional support would be required, a secondary role would be played by external role-players, as part of the holistic, integrative approach to policing practised by the SAPS.”