Police Oversight and Community Safety
a) Where are the police vans of the Mitchells Plain Police Station deployed and (b) what are the reasons for their poor response to crime in the area?
(a) Based on crime threat and crime pattern analyses, vehicles are deployed to varying crime hotspot areas, or to operations focussing on serious crime such as robberies, gang, drug and firearm related crime.
Detailed information that is made public, with regard to the South African Police Service’s operational deployment of human and material resources, or with respect to any area of operational strategy and tactics, may pose a threat to the safety and security of SAPS personnel deployed at police stations and, therefore, cannot be provided.
(b) Police reaction time to crime can vary widely depending on several factors, including:
- Priority levels: crimes in progress are prioritised over crimes that have already occurred, and, crimes that are more serious supersede less urgent situations.
- Heavy workload: high crime rates and high call volumes may lead to a heavier workload and delay police response to rimes.
- Misuse of the emergency line (10111) through pranks: this results in despatchers requesting more information rather than immediately despatching police officers.
- Immediate availability of resources: the number of police officers, vehicles and other equipment, as well as their proximity to the scene of a crime, which are immediately available for despatch, can affect prompt response to incidents.
