Victims of crime withdrawing cases is one of the biggest issues police face when it comes to prosecuting perpetrators.
Speaking to the People’s Post, Grassy Park Police station commander Col Dawood Laing says while perpetrators are arrested for crimes ranging from rape, assault and robbery to malicious damage of property the withdrawal of cases is one of their biggest concerns.
Over a week ago, National Police Minister Bheki Cele released the country’s quarterly crime statistics.
In terms of the figures, the Grassy Park precinct recorded increases in sexual assaults, contact-related crimes and malicious damage to property.
“The sexual assault cases, that include rape, are a regular occurrence. The issue we sit with is that most of the cases are being withdrawn by victims before (they) reach court. So conviction is very low.”
According to the stats, Grassy Park Police Station is among the top four stations in the province for sexual assault cases.
“All our sexual assaults were committed to minors, it’s a combination of adults to minors and minors to minors and a lot of time it is boys to boys,” says Laing.
He explains: “In our socio economic houses, parents are having sexual intercourse in front of their children.
“Brothers or sisters come home with a girlfriend or boyfriend and have sexual intercourse in front of children so they think it is okay.”
Laing says their focus area is highlighting to children that their bodies are sacred and should not be touched.
Other concern, when it comes to prosecuting sexual assault and rape cases, is the use of drugs or alcohol during an assault.
“It is unfortunate that 17% of rape cases are where the victim was either using drugs or intoxicated and some have a problem remembering what happened.
“For example, if a case goes to court, and the victim says they woke up with someone on top of them and they asked the person to stop and that person stops, it is hard to prove sexual assault or rape.”
In other areas, it is easier to prove sexual assault but tragically in those cases minors are involved. “We had an incident where a assistant teacher had sexual intercourse with two girls aged 14 and 12.
“The children could not have consented because they are underage and the perpetrator, who is educated with a Honours Degree used his position of power to do this gross actions.
“That person has been in jail for the past 10 months.”
Another worrying statistic is the increase in attempted murder cases.
“Our murders had a big decrease but our attempted murder cases have increased with six cases, by around 12 to 13%.”
However, due to a delayed justice system and withdrawal of cases, there hasn’t been many successful prosecutions.
“When a person is seriously wounded we open a case on behalf of the victim, so if the person passes on we have crime scene photos and evidence but as soon as victim comes out of hospital they withdraw the case.
“Another challenge is when the court roll is full and the victim does not always get justice, having to go to court 10 or 11 times,” says Laing.
Other statistics that increased in the first quarter included theft, malicious damage to property, dealing in drugs and alcohol and the possession of stolen property.
“Malicious damage to property and theft had gone up by four and 11 cases. We are sitting with the challenge where people damage electricity boxes during load shedding.
“In once instance in Lotus River during the taxi strike wires were stolen and because City contractors were previously robbed in the area they did not enter the area.
“The community sat without electricity for three to four days.”
In conclusion, Laing says the biggest issues in Grassy Park is sexual offences and gang violence.
“Gang violence is still in an issue, the incidents are random though and not like before where we had multiple incidents in the past.
“Gangsterism and sexual offences will always be my biggest working area and we try to escalate those cases. Our domestic violence cases had 80 percent arrests but then unfortunately the victims withrew the cases.”
In a statement, Mayco member for safety and security JP Smith, says the high levels of crime evident in the quarterly stats shows the need for more collaborations between police and City officers.
“The City has passed a record R5,8bn safety and security budget for the new financial year which commenced last month.
“This includes R860 million over three years in crime-fighting technology such as CCTV, drones, body and dashcams, aerial surveillance, and gunshot detection tech.
“This will complement the 1 200 law enforcement officers deployed to crime hotspots under the Law Enforcement Advancement Plan (LEAP) together with the Western Cape government.”
