Police must Explain Disastrous Police-to-Population Ratios

Statement by Dan Plato, Western Cape Minister of Community Safety

After an official request, the Provincial Commissioner’s Office has informed me that while the official statistics point to a police to population ratio of one police officer for every 245 citizens in the Western Cape, this ratio falls to a disastrously low one officer to 3 200 citizens in some of the most crime-affected communities of this province. The South African Police Service (SAPS) in the Western Cape has failed to respond to two official requests regarding their plan to address this situation and will now have to explain to parliament and the people of the Western Cape what measures will be taken to fix this.

The police to population ratio is the number of police officers that serve that community, proportional to the community size. If there is one citizen and one officer, the ratio is 1:1. Nationally, South Africa’s ratio is one officer per every 303 citizens. The South African Police Service (SAPS) in the Western Cape often prides itself on claiming to have one of South Africa’s best ratios, which, according to SAPS is 1: 245 – only beaten by the Northern Cape with a ratio of 1: 170.

This may look good on paper, however in my numerous visits to police stations, I often experience a lack of police officers and my office receives many complaints of a lack of personnel resources. In April this year I wrote to the Provincial Commissioner’s office to request the police to population ratios for every SAPS station in the Province. The reply I received was most concerning.

Table 1: Comparing SAPS crime reported murders top 10 stations with population to police ratios:

If one compares the 10 stations in the province that experience the highest number of murders, and one looks at the police-to-population ratios at these stations, then it becomes clear that there is not one example where the ratio corresponds to the average norm of one officer to 245 people for the province. At the majority of these stations, each officer is instead serving at least five times more citizens than the provincial norm.

The 20 police stations with the worst police-to-population ratios are, without fail, the stations which are notorious for high levels of crime. This leads me to believe that the poor numbers of operational police officers at these stations has a negative impact on the crime levels in these areas and is something which needs to be addressed urgently. 

This is most concerning considering that the Western Cape is suffering from ongoing gang violence, violent and illegal protests and the highest murder rate in the country in some areas. We need to be assured that SAPS are dealing with these problems and are getting the necessary support to that they are properly capacitated to carry out their duties.

On 13 May I requested an urgent response in terms of how the police were addressing this situation, and what measures had been or were being put in place to provide more visible policing to these most crime affected areas.

I asked the Provincial Police Commissioner to respond to the following in two separate letters over the past two months:

a) Whether an action plan has been created to address this problem and if not, why not and if so, what are the details of this plan.

b) What is being done in the interim to address the inadequate amount of operational officers at stations that experience the highest crime rates.

c) Timelines on when this problem will be addressed.

It has been two months and I have not had a response from the SAPS. I have now referred this matter to the Standing Committee on Community Safety, Cultural Affairs and Sport, through the chairperson, MPL Mark Wiley.

The Provincial Police Commissioner and his senior management will have to explain to Parliament and the people of the Western Cape why the police-to-population ratio has fallen to such disastrous levels despite a desperate need for more visible policing and what is being done to resolve this and ensure the safety of the people of the Western Cape.

Police oversight is essential for a functional and effective police service and the Standing Committee is one the platforms which serves this purpose.

To give you an example of how important it is to have an adequate number of police for the specific population size of the community it serves - Nyanga is often cited as the area with the most murders in the country. According to the 2001 census Nyanga had a population of 116 289 people, which almost doubled to 200 913 in 2011. Yet the number of visible policing compared to staffing levels decreased by around 33% from 141% to 104%. Murders have only dropped slightly from 263 in 2004/2005 to 233 in 2011/2012, and the police-to-population ratio in Nyanga currently stands at one officer for 1 418 people. The national average is one officer to 303 people.

The reason why we are referring this to the Standing Committee is because we want to fix the problem and allow the police the opportunity to assure the people of the Western Cape that they have a plan to address this serious problem and ensure the safety of all.