Cape Town - Western Cape Premier Helen Zille has signed the proclamation of the remaining sections of the Community Safety Act that will pave the way for the provincial government to receive quarterly crime statistics.
The move will allow Community Safety MEC Dan Plato to promulgate the final regulations that will enable more frequent statistics to be released.
According to Plato the final regulations, which have received the full support of the South African Police Service, will take effect next month.
This means that the Western Cape will get its first batch of crime statistics, from October 1 to December 31 at the end of January next year.
“This is a victory for every person living in the Western Cape. The regular release of statistical information on reported crime enable all law enforcement agencies and safety structures to adequately and timeously adapt strategies to better respond to crime realities, in real time,” Plato said.
Despite a national cabinet decision taken in June that crime statistics be released quarterly, the rest of the country was still unclear as to when this would be implemented, he said.
“It is unclear whether the anticipated release of the crime stats (on Friday) by National Police Minister Nkosinathi Nhleko and Acting National Commissioner, Lt General Khomotso Phahlane, will reflect the quarterly reporting structure,” he said.
the release of the 2015 crime stats was, by the police's own admission, riddled with “discrepancies” which showed a nil return for crime categories at stations across the country.
“Inaccurate and unreliable statistical reporting draws into question its validity. This further compounds its effectiveness to be used in crime preventative strategies by the entire safety fraternity, considering that annually released statistics can be up to 18 months old already.”
Plato said the number of reported crimes in the annual crime statistics mean very little if the figures were not used to help inform safety interventions to reduce crime.
“Crime stats should not belong only to the police but should be used to inform the public of risks in their communities and empower strategic action from the entire safety fraternity.”
Plato said regular crime statistics is a step in the right direction to empower communities and unite with the police to fight crime.
Cape Argus