Police Oversight and Community Safety
With regard to the current inventory of essential policing equipment available to members of the South African Police Service in the province:
- How many (a) pepper sprays, (b) service firearms, (c) handcuffs, (d) batons, (e) flashlights and (f) two-way radios are stocked;
- whether all operational members are adequately equipped with the minimum required tools of trade; if not, (a) what is the shortfall per item and (b) what are the details of any supply chain challenges that have been experienced in the procurement of these items;
- whether her Department has conducted any recent audit of the condition of operational equipment issued to SAPS members; if so, what were the findings?
THE MINISTER OF POLICE OVERSIGHT AND COMMUNITY SAFETY WAS INFORMED AS FOLLOWS:
The reply of the South African Police Service (SAPS):
18. (1) (a) 71 765
(b) 19 014
(c) 21 173
(d) 23 418
(e) 26 418
(f) 8 466
(2) Yes
(a) N/a
(b) Yes, all operational members are adequately equipped, refer to paragraph (1).
THE MINISTER OF POLICE OVERSIGHT AND COMMUNITY SAFETY TO REPLY:
18. (3) The Department of Police Oversight and Community Safety implemented the Police Census project in the 2023/24 financial year where all of the then 151 police stations in the Western Cape were assessed. The results are set out below. It should be noted that the Department has not conducted a more recent assessment, and the situation might have changed since then. The unit of analysis is the police station.
- 46% (69) of police stations had poor network connectivity,
- 80% (121) of police stations had slow systems, particularly the Integrated Case Docket Management System (ICDMS),
- 56% (84) of police stations required additional offices,
- 29% (44) of police stations required the construction of a new police station building,
- 54% (81) of police stations had insufficient SAPS 13 Storage,
- 68% (103) of police stations have insufficient Archive Storage,
- 34% (51) of police stations did not have safes for the Detective Service,
- 83% (125) of police stations did not have a strongroom for the Detective Service,
- 36% (54) of police stations had some vehicles that are not suitable for the terrain within their policing precinct,
- 33% (50) of the station with operational vehicles fitted with the Automated Vehicle Location System (AVLS), indicated that the AVLS is not functional hence it cannot be used for tracking patrols and other policing activities.
