Pretoria - Pictures depicting two police officers sleeping in a state vehicle have caused a stir on social media platforms and have prompted police to launch an internal investigation.
The pictures were taken and uploaded on Facebook by Amore Sameera Jooste, who said she stopped at the BP service station in Eldoraigne on Sunday morning.
“I was buying cigarettes when I saw the two officers asleep and took the pictures. No other police officers were in the vicinity at the time,” Jooste said.
Police and Prisons Civil Rights Union’s Gauteng chairman, Vusimuzi Tshabalala, said the incident was unfortunate because officers were not allowed to sleep on duty.
“They should not have been sleeping while on duty and should have been patrolling and responding to calls, if there were any. But the department must take steps against them if there is sufficient evidence,” Tshabalala said.
There were barracks for officers at stations, he said, but these did not encourage officers to sleep while on duty.
Police spokesman Lieutenant-General Lungelo Dlamini said the matter was being investigated and disciplinary measures would be taken against the pair because sleeping on duty constituted misconduct.
The pictures show the two police officers seemingly in deep sleep in a Wierdabrug police van.
Post-doctoral fellow in criminology at the University of Cape Town, Andrew Faull, said it was not rare for police officers operating in rural areas to take naps during shifts. But this was frowned upon by the public in urban areas.
“It shouldn’t be encouraged, because it paints the police force in a bad light especially if they are captured on camera. It would have been better if one of the officers was asleep while the other was awake. But depending on the environment, they could have been strained,” Faull said.
However, National Education Health and Allied Workers Union spokesman Sizwe Pamla said he understood the strain which police officers were exposed to due to the demands of their work, but it did not justify them being asleep on duty.
“Like nurses, police officers need breaks because of their high pressure environment. But it does not mean they have to sleep during their breaks because this amounts to misconduct,” Pamla said.
Pretoria News