RESPONSE OF THE SOUTH AFRICAN POLICE SERVICE TO CONCERNS RAISED DURING THE PUBLIC HEARINGS

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RESPONSE OF THE SOUTH AFRICAN POLICE SERVICE TO
CONCERNS RAISED DURING THE PUBLIC HEARINGS
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OBLIGATIONS ON THE POLICE

• Police must render assistance to the victim to -
• find suitable shelter
• obtain medical treatment and
• make a decision on the remedies at his or her
  disposal.
• Accompany victim to collect personal property
• Record keeping (eg Domestic Violence Register)

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POWERS OF THE POLICE DOMESTIC VIOLENCE

• A police officials has the power to -
• arrest the respondent
• seize weapons
• serve protection orders and
• enforce protection orders.

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ISSUES RAISED DURING PUBLIC HEARINGS

• Non-compliance with obligations in terms of the
  Act and National Instruction
• Failure to serve protection orders
• Failure to arrest
• Domestic Violence should be reportable crime
• Seizure of firearms
• Return of FSC Units
• Role of female members to assist victims
• Privacy of victims should be respected at
  stations
• Role of CPF

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NON-COMPLIANCE WITH THE ACT

• Section 18(4) provides that a failure by a member
  to comply with an obligation imposed in terms of
  the Act or the national instruction, constitutes
  misconduct and the ICD must forthwith be informed
  thereof
• Any reported failure is investigated
• If valid - disciplinary steps are taken
• ONLY the ICD may grant exemption from
  disciplinary steps

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NON-COMPLIANCE WITH THE ACT (Cont)

• Compliance by members is continuously monitored
  by
• station management
• inspectorates at provincial and national level
• Auditor General performance audit
• New members are guided by Field Training Officers
  and receive continuous in-service training

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NON-COMPLIANCE WITH THE ACT (Cont)

• Non-compliance is addressed by
• providing directives, information and awareness
  material on an ongoing basis
• appropriate disciplinary action and
• continuous in-service training.
• If station is found not to comply with Act,
  remedial steps are taken on the spot and reported
  to management to follow up to ensure compliance

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NON-COMPLIANCE WITH THE ACT (Cont)

• Statistics on non-compliance by members are
  collated on a monthly basis from stations and
  submitted to provincial offices, and then to the
  national office
• Figures of non-compliance fluctuate. In current
  financial year, the national office visited 45
  stations in all 9 provinces to establish the
  level of compliance. Non-compliance was only
  found at 10 stations

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FAILURE TO SERVE PROTECTION ORDER

• This issue arises from the misperception that
  only members may serve protection orders
• Section 13 provides that a protection order must
  be served either by the clerk of the court, a
  sheriff or a peace officer
• Police should only be utilized in cases where the
  victim is in danger of imminent harm

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FAILURE TO ARREST

• This issue arises from the misperception that
  members MUST arrest in certain circumstances (eg
  if a protection order is contravened)
• If a protection order is contravened, the police
  may ONLY arrest the respondent if the member is
  of the opinion that the victim may suffer
  imminent harm if the perpetrator is not arrested
• There is NO DUTY on police to arrest. A member
  has a discretion and must be satisfied that the
  victim is in danger of imminent harm before
  deciding to arrest
• Community insists that members must arrest, even
  where the victim is not in danger of imminent
  harm, resulting in
• civil claims against police for wrongful arrest
  and
• loss of income of breadwinner and the family
  suffering.

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DOMESTIC VIOLENCE REPORTABLE CRIME?

• Domestic violence is NOT a crime
• Only certain forms of domestic violence
  constitute crimes (eg murder, rape, assault, etc)
• All incidents of DV are recorded in domestic
  violence registers while crimes are registered on
  Crime Administration System

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SEIZURE OF FIREARMS

• Police are empowered to seize firearms -
• if respondent threatened to kill / injure anyone
  by means of firearm / dangerous weapon or
• because of mental condition of respondent, his
  inclination to violence or dependence on
  substance with intoxicating or narcotic effect.
• This is followed by an inquiry to determine
  fitness of the respondent to possess a firearm
  (sec 102 of Firearms Control Act)
• A protection order may authorize the Police to
  seize firearms

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RE-INTRODUCTION OF FCS UNITS

• Policy decision was taken to
• re-introduce FCS Units
• This decision is currently being implemented and
  involves the selection, training and transfer of
  members

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ROLE OF FEMALE MEMBERS

• There is not enough female members to make a
  female member available at every station to
  attend to every victim of domestic violence
• A policy decision was taken to recruit more
  female members and this is in the process of
  being implemented

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PRIVACY OF VICTIMS AT POLICE STATIONS

• Building plans for new police stations provide
  for areas where victims can be attended to in
  private
• As far as may be possible within the available
  funds, similar areas are created during the
  upgrading of existing stations

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ROLE OF CPFs

• Police team up with CPFs to raise awareness in
  the community about -
• the plight of victims of gender based violence
• assistance that victims of domestic violence may
  expect from the police
• CPFs liaise with, and mobilize the community and
  community based organizations to assist victims
  of domestic violence by providing shelter,
  counselling- and other support services

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CHALLENGES PROPOSED LEGISLATIVE AMENDMENTS

• Different protection orders are issued that are
  in direct conflict with one another because the
  magistrate is unaware of existing orders.
• Members are placed in an untenable position and
  are expected to enforce contradictory orders
• Proposal All protection orders issued for or
  against a complainant should be presented to the
  magistrate before a protection order may be
  issued

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CHALLENGES PROPOSED LEGISLATIVE AMENDMENTS (Cont)

• Disputes arise on what qualifies as personal
  property and the ownership of the property
• Members are not in a position to adjudicate on
  such disputes
• Members expose themselves to criminal charges if
  they mistakenly permit property to be taken by
  the complainant
• Proposal Court to determine and specify personal
  property that should be collected

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CHALLENGES PROPOSED LEGISLATIVE AMENDMENTS (Cont)

• Magistrates directing police to serve all
  protection orders
• This sometimes result in police vehicles being
  permanently engaged serving orders and being
  unavailable to perform policing functions
• Proposal Clear delineation of circumstances in
  which the Police must serve a protection order.

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CHALLENGES PROPOSED LEGISLATIVE AMENDMENTS (Cont)

• No determined period of validity of protection
  order
• Protection orders remain permanently in force
  even though the issue that gave rise to the
  application for the order may have been resolved
  and the complainant has lost the documents. The
  complainant cannot remember at which police
  station the order was lodged, but request
  enforcement of the order
• Proposal The period of validity of a protection
  order should be limited (eg 3 yrs), complainants
  may then request renewal upon expiry, if still
  required.

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CHALLENGES PROPOSED LEGISLATIVE AMENDMENTS (Cont)

• Discretionary power of member to arrest upon
  contravention of protection order
• The discretion is too wide and create
  expectations that cannot be fulfilled
• Proposal Limit discretionary power to arrest by
  providing clear conditions before an arrest may
  be made

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CHALLENGES FOR THE POLICE

• Lack of shelters