Cape Town - The Western Cape government plans to provide monthly station-level crime statistics instead of only once a year, to help inform the public of risks in their communities.
For a decade police have released crime statistics once a year in September, when some statistics are 18 months out of date.
But if the province’s plan goes ahead, from January people will have monthly access to statistics of crimes committed in their communities.
Community Safety MEC Dan Plato will this week write to national police commissioner General Riah Phiyega and her provincial counterpart, Arno Lamoer, to ask them to give his office up-to-date crime data.
This follows the release on Friday of crime statistics for the previous financial year which paint a grim picture of a Cape of crime.
According to these statistics, violent crime soared nationally and there was a sharp hike in the rates of murder, attempted murder, robbery and housebreaking in the province during the year.
Plato, speaking to Weekend Argus on the sidelines of an anti-crime meeting in Macassar on Saturday, said the Western Cape Community Safety Act of 2013 gave his office the legislative authority to access statistics.
The act was signed into law by Premier Helen Zille in April last year. A section reads: “In order for the provincial minister to oversee the effectiveness and efficiency of the police service and to monitor police conduct, the provincial commissioner must (report)… statistical information regarding the number and nature of crimes reported to the police.”
The act also states that the provincial minister may “establish and maintain integrated information systems in order to oversee the effectiveness and efficiency of the police service and to determine the policing needs and priorities of the province”.
The MEC said he had instructed his department to ensure that all the act’s regulations were implemented no later than January.
In response to a request for comment, provincial police spokesman Colonel Tembinkosi Kinana said Lamoer’s office would issue a statement about the release of statistics at a later date.
Plato said Cape Town’s metro police would also have to provide information to his office.
“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,” he said. “Annual crime stats are not informing proactive efforts from law enforcement, different spheres of government, the safety fraternity
or the community at large.”
South Africa should follow the international example of regular crime data releases, he said. The New York Police Department’s CompStat unit, for example, provides weekly crime statistics per precinct for seven major crimes – including murder, rape and robbery. The statistics can be viewed on an interactive city map or in table form and are easily comparable with historical data.
The Institute for Security Studies has argued that releasing 12 month’s worth of police crime data once a year is unhelpful, and regular data releases are needed.
Gareth Newham, head of the institute’s governance, crime and justice division, said crime statistics were out of date when they were released in September each year, as they contained information on reported crimes from April and March. These statistics did not help communities to quickly identify emerging crime threats, he said.
The Khayelitsha Commission of Inquiry, a provincial inquiry into crime and community-police relations in the Cape’s biggest suburb, heard testimony from numerous policing experts this year who argued that statistics should be released more often. In its final report the commission agreed.
“The regular release of crime statistics can foster good relations between SAPS and the broader community… and increase levels of trust in policing,” wrote authors former Justice Kate O’Regan and former National Prosecuting Authority head Vusi Pikoli.
The commission, whose findings focused on Khayelitsha but have been seen as widely applicable to other parts of the country, said station-level crime statistics were key.
Weekend Argus