Untitled - Saps

1998
10 Years of Policing in a Democracy 1995 – 2005
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• In March 1998, the first 18, locally-trained polygraph system operators - nine police
officials and nine SANDF members - graduated from the Detective Academy in
Silverton, Pretoria. The course, presented by the US Argenbright International Institute
of Polygraphy, was the first of its kind to be presented locally.
• Project Johannesburg was launched in April 1998 to develop a new style of policing that
was less bureaucratic, more cost-effective and community friendly, with an enhanced
capacity to fight crime. Encompassing 20 police stations in the Johannesburg police area,
between R30 and R35 million was allocated to the project out of the SAPS budget.
• In April 1998, a plan to reconstruct the SAPS was presented to Parliament’s Safety and
Security Portfolio Committee. The plan included -
- delivering professional “customer service” by improving the public image of the
police, as well as improving the discipline, morale and investigative techniques of the
police;
- recruiting civilian employees and permanent members to alleviate the heavy
caseload of police officials; and
- establishing crime information centres to form a ground-level database and creating
crime-prevention and reaction units.
• In June 1998, it was announced that the SAPS would take in new recruits over the
following five years. A total of 1 200 recruits were enlisted in the SAPS in a rolling intake
process during which 300 recruits were enlisted at a time.
• More than 2 000 stolen vehicles, worth R9 million, were seized during a cross-border
operation involving police officials from South Africa, Swaziland, Lesotho and Mauritius
in June 1998.
• Owing to ongoing violence in the Richmond area in KwaZulu-Natal, an operation
called PAX II was launched in July 1998. It was a joint operation between the SAPS
and the SANDF, which improved stability in the region.
• In August 1998, three members of the FBI and a member of the Department of Justice
attended one-day workshops where detectives taught them techniques of neutralizing
criminal enterprises. Five top forensic scientists of the FBI Forensic Science Laboratory’s
Trace Evidence Unit in Washington presented a two-week training course at the National
Forensic Science Laboratory in Pretoria. The course was the first presented by the
FBI in Africa.
• In September 1998, the Detective Academy officially launched the first Generic Serious
and Violent Crime pilot training programme. Thirty-one provincial heads of Serious
and Violent Crime units, as well as managers from different specialized police units,
attended the course. Training focused on the fields of murder and robbery, vehicle
hijacking, taxi and gang violence, serial killings and illegal firearms. Subjects such as
major case management, sophisticated investigative techniques and partnerships with the
community were also dealt with.
• In September 1998, the SAPS launched a R40-million project aimed at dealing with
the escalating incidence of suicide and violence in the service. The project, known as
the National Suicide Prevention Project, concentrated on researching, managing and
preventing further losses of human lives.
• A manual entitled Human Rights and Policing introduced police officials to the Constitution
and to the principles underlying human rights. Management and leadership development
programmes in the service included the Learning Intervention of Supervisors through
the Operational Management Programme for Officers, the Station Management
Programme (presented by the Joint Universities Public Management Education Trust
with funding from the South African Management Development Institute), the Middle
Management Programme and the Leadership Development Programme.
• The Emerging Leadership Programme (ELP) was presented by the Kagiso Leadership
School and was funded by the European Union.