Crime Prevention

The Community Service Centres (called Charge Offices in the past) at police stations are the centre of activity in the SAPS.

A police official can work at one of the following places at a police station:

• The Community Service Centre
• Partnership Policing
• The Crime Prevention Unit
• The Dog and Mounted Unit
• The Central Firearm Control Register
• Emergency Response Services
• Social Crime Prevention

A Community Service Centre Official works at a Community Service Centre. He or she carries out various duties such as -

• dealing with general enquiries from the public;
• dealing with complaints lodged by members of the public and in some cases attending the scenes of complaints;
• making arrests and detaining suspects;
• recording information regarding crime on the SAPS computer systems; and
• carrying out patrol duties in a policing sector.

A police official who works in a Community Service Centre gains a broad knowledge of the functions of the SAPS, statutory law and common law. He or she will be able to use this knowledge later in his or her career.

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At Partnership Policing, a police official works closely with the community by means of Community Police Forums and other partnerships. The member’s duties are as follows:

• Forming and maintaining partnerships between the SAPS and the community.
• Promoting communication between the community and the SAPS by, for example, holding meetings with members of the community.
• Making sure the needs of the community are met by, for example, launching projects such as Victim Assistance Programmes that ensure that victims of crime are assisted in reporting crimes and appearing as witnesses in court. At police stations victims of violent crime are counseled in special rooms known as trauma centres.
• Working with the community to ensure problems are solved jointly.
• Preventing crime by means of a pro-active approach.

At Crime Prevention Units, members are responsible for -

• giving law-abiding members of the community peace of mind by making sure that there is a visible police presence in the community;
• increasing police visibility by means of patrol methods and techniques in areas where crime poses a high risk;
• promoting a good relationship between the police and the community;
• giving crime prevention tips to members of the public; and
• participating in programmes aimed at preventing crime.

A sector commander (SC) and other police officials work at the Crime Prevention Unit of a police station. They work in partnership with the local community to deal with crime issues in that community. They manage policing sectors to achieve the goals of sector policing and are responsible for -

• compiling and maintaining a profile of a sector;
• forming a Sector Crime Forum (SCF);
• identifying the causes of crime in his or her sector;
• identifying the need for crime prevention operations/projects, and developing and coordinating those projects; and
• attending his or her sector’s SCF meetings and Community Police Forum meetings.

A firearm licensing officer works at a Central Firearm Control Register and administers applications for firearm and ammunition licences. An arms control officer exercises control over the manufacture, trade in and transportation of firearms and ammunition to and from South Africa. An arms control officer also exercises control over firearms (including State-owned firearms) at institutions, all Government departments and museums.

Social crime prevention officials study factors that contribute to crime and violence. They implement programmes to deal with violence against women and children such as rape, domestic violence and child abuse. Therefore, they enforce the Victim Empowerment and Domestic Violence Acts. They also ensure that the SAPS supports rural development and urban renewal programmes.

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Emergency Response Services include the following:

• Police Emergency 10111 Centres
• Rapid Response Services carried out by the Flying Squad
• Inland Water Policing and Police Diving
• Hostage Negotiations

Police Emergency 10111 Centres operate an established 10111 call centre, where all police-related emergency calls are received and attended to.

The Flying Squad is a rapid response service activated to respond to police-related emergencies.

Inland Water Policing entails search and recovery operations carried out on, in and around rivers, dams and confined spaces by police divers, in an attempt to search for and recover bodies and exhibits. They also participate in crime prevention operations. Selected and specially trained police officials do diving in addition to their normal police duties.

Hostage Negotiators deal with hostage situations and suicide-related incidents. These negotiators are specifically trained and equipped with negotiation skills to ensure the safety of persons involved in different types of hostage situations, attempted suicide, kidnapping and barricades. Negotiators do this work in addition to their normal duties.

Members of the SAPS who have completed the basic training and who have a passion for animals can follow a career in the Dog and Mounted Services. Police dogs and horses play an important role in the prevention, combating and investigation of crime. To train and work with police animals is regarded as a specialized field and requires people with unique qualities.

Members who join the Dog Unit undergo intensive training. Candidates can choose to be trained in -

• patrol dog handling;
• tracker dog handling;
• search and rescue dog handling;
• narcotics detection dog handling;
• explosives detection dog handling;
• protected species detection dog handling;
• fire investigation dog handling;
• tactical dog handling; or
• sheep-dog handling.

The qualities a person must have to breed and train police dogs are as follows:

• Knowledge about the behaviour of dogs
• Patience
• A caring for animals

At the breeding facility near Pretoria, puppies with special characteristics are bred. The young dogs are prepared for training in the mentioned fields. The dogs are made familiar with noise, traffic, people and buildings by means of modern techniques.

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Even in a technologically advanced world horses are still seen as necessary for policing. Police officials on horseback win the respect of the public. Members who are interested in joining the Mounted Unit undergo intensive training at the Mounted School in Pretoria. Training for farriers (horseshoers) is also provided at the Mounted School. Trained riders are employed at -

• Visible Policing units where they play an active role in preventing and combating crime; or
• in rural areas where they investigate crimes like stock theft.

In addition to their normal duties members of the Mounted Services take part in ceremonial parades. Mounted Services also breeds and trains horses.

The welfare of police animals is important to the SAPS. Veterinary Services has a fully equipped surgery. Qualified veterinary surgeons, ordinances and assistants look after the health and well-being of police animals.

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