Durban - THE involvement of police officers in crime has become far too common and has resulted in the public losing confidence in them.
This was according to crime experts after a Berea police station detective was released on bail on Wednesday after being found in possession of 3 000 capsules suspected of containing heroin.
Constable Direshen Govender was granted R3 000 bail in Chatsworth Magistrate’s Court. According to Anti-Drug Forum SA director Sam Pillay, Govender was ordered not to communicate with State witnesses. The matter was adjourned to May.
Govender was arrested on Tuesday by the Chatsworth police drug team outside a drug-dealing den in Table Mountain Road, Shallcross. Police searched the vehicle he was in and allegedly found 3 061 orange-and-white capsules suspected to contain heroin.
Johan Burger, a senior researcher at the Institute for Security Studies (ISS), said it was regularly reported in the media that police officers were involved in criminal activity, of them being arrested and convicted, and eventually forced to leave the police service.
Burger said the issue of officers
being involved in criminal activities went to the heart of public confidence in the police.
“The problem with this kind of criminal involvement by police officers is really undermining the confidence and trust that members of the public have in the police service.
“That has a number of very negative consequences. Essentially, what
this means is that the public and the communities, especially the poorer communities, are inclined to look at incidents such as this and then generalise that all police officers are bad, that all of them are criminals,” Burger said.
He said although not all police officers were criminals, people would doubt whether or not they should trust the officer they were interacting with.
Burger said the general feeling was that the police service could not be trusted and there was no confidence in its ability to perform its legal duties.
Mary de Haas, a peace monitor, said police being involved in criminal activities was an old problem, dating back to apartheid.
“Police are trying to deal with drugs, but they have a problem because within their ranks there are people who are part of the problem. There’s a huge amount of money in drugs so it’s easy to buy police off,” De Haas said.
“It has been known for years that there are people in the police service who may not be dealing in drugs, but who get kickbacks to turn a blind eye.”
She said Govender should reveal the network behind the drugs because it was unlikely he was doing it alone.
Pillay said they knew that police were complicit with dealers and that was why many dealers continued
with their trade for years without any consequences.
He said some good officers arrested dealers, but then no convictions would take place.
“The other good thing is the fact that (Chatsworth station commander) Brigadier Kevin James is serious about dealing with this issue. This is significant for us in Chatsworth because the drug unit did a significant bust, their own member. A fellow colleague was caught and they took it seriously and they are going to go all the way,” Pillay said.
“I’m excited there is someone like Brigadier James who is going to do his work and I’m confident that he’s going to help us in getting rid of the other dealers in the area.”