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20110914

Did crime rates drop? Only if moon is made of cheese

SA crime statistics only ‘dropped’ because the statistics are ‘manipulated and nullified at police-station level’… ex-cop writes: SAPS SQUEEZING CRIME TO ZERO POLICE LOGO CHANGE

2011-09-12  An ex-policeman writes in Beeld newspaper that it is a total  lie that the crime-rates are going down. One just needs to open the daily newspapers and talk to one’s neighbours to know that crime has never been as high as it is now.

So why do the authorities claim that ‘crime-rates have dropped”?  From his experience he knows that the crime statistics are all being manipulated to make the police-station, the station-commander and the provincial police commissioner look good'. There are many crimes which are 'nullified' from police-station level on up, he noted in a letter to the Afrikaans daily Beeld.

"For example: I am still involved in fighting crime in my community. One night I caught someone stealing a radio from a vehicle. After a long wait, I went to the police station myself and offered to complete the dossier for them, because I was experienced in that work: all the police-member (at the charge-office)  had to so, was the necessary paper-work'. SAPS CRIME RATES DROPPED ONLY IF MOON IS MADE OF CHEESE

 

He did not want to ruin his statistics on his shift:
However - when the police-member noticed that I was opening a dossier for theft from a motor-vehicle, he said that 'he did not want to ruin his statistics on his shift, and that I should open a dossier for (a lesser charge) of deliberate damage to property instead.'  After a row, I had to bow to his demands. Just as many of my ex-colleagues are also doing we can only shake our heads and tell everybody how fed-up we are with crime.

But is there any interest in re-instating ex-police officers who still have discipline and pride in their work? No, because they would probably charge half of the present police-force and lodge so many cases that we would be nailed to the wall with accusations of being racists. “

“So did the crime rates really drop?  Of course they did: “the moon is made of cheese, too,” he concluded.

(Tip of the Day: For the freshest daily violent-crimes logged by a private citizen initiative’s  criminology-website: sign up for their newsletter at http://www.farmitracker.com. The SAPS.gov.za crime statistics are a year old )

  http://www.beeld.com/MyBeeld/Briewe/Polisielid-laat-my-klag-verander-want-hy-wil-nie-die-syfers-bederf-20110912

SAPS SQUEEZING CRIME TO ZERO POLICE LOGO CHANGE