Cape Town - Western Cape police regularly auction off expensive stolen loot seized from suspects after robberies because owners cannot provide proof of purchase.
Deputy provincial commissioner Major-General Sharon Jephta has appealed to people to keep receipts and serial numbers of the electronic goods they buy to ensure they can identify and reclaim confiscated stolen goods that are kept at police storage facilities in the province.
Jephta was addressing the provincial parliament’s standing committee on community safety on Wednesday.
“We make arrests on a daily basis but can’t link the stolen goods to the crimes because there’s no serial number and people do not keep their receipts for long periods.”
Jephta was standing in for Western Cape police head General Arno Lamoer who had been called to an urgent meeting with national Police Minister Nkosinathi Nhleko.
She said police were particularly concerned about the 16.7 percent increase in aggravated robberies from the 2012/13 financial year to 2013/14.
These robberies included car- and truckjacking, house, business and street robberies, and cash-in-transit heists.
Urging home and business owners to keep the serial numbers of the goods they bought in the event police recovered the loot and tried to link it to the thieves, Jephta said it could go a long way in ensuring the perpetrators were caught.
“Make a list and put it on your fridge.”
She said robbers were targeting cellphones, laptops and other hi-tech equipment and selling them for a fraction of the price.
And she highlighted that fact that cellphone networks, which were expanding their operations into other countries, had created a market for stolen electronic goods.
Jephta said better intergovernmental relations were needed to fight the high crime statistics in the province.
“If we can all take responsibility for the high statistics we can do something about them.”
But she said when the police invited government departments to their meetings they often did not turn up.
Regarding gang violence and specialised units to address it, Jephta emphasised that gang, taxi and public violence were priorities for the police in the province.
“Unfortunately it touches across communities and it touches across boundaries, and if we want to prevent it we have to put resources there. We are taking from stations and rotating staff from time to time.”
Operation Combat, which had a 100 dedicated members, “will continue until we have made remarkable inroads”.
Questioned by MPs about visible policing and staff levels in the province, deputy provincial police commissioner Major-General Hendrik Burger said the police staffing complement was at 90 percent with an added 550 new recruits undergoing police training, bringing the figure to 92 percent.
But Community Safety MEC Dan Plato said an analysis of crime statistics for the province clearly indicated there were major problems on the horizon.
He said residents were becoming impatient, demanding to know why druglords and gangsters continued to roam the streets.
“If the police don’t start arresting the druglords and gang bosses, and getting proper intelligence on the supply of guns and ammunition in the province, the fight against crime syndicates will be lost completely.”
Plato said gang bosses were using rifles as they plagued the Cape Flats, and police intelligence needed to be beefed up to curb the flow of arms into the province.
Cape Argus