There needs to be better synergy between crime intelligence and South African Police Service (SAPS) to combat the high crime rates in the country, this is according to Forensic expert at Bizz Tracers, Calvin Rafadi.
Rafadi was talking in the light of second quarter crime statistics released by Police Minister, Bheki Cele yesterday who said the “crime figures show that aggression and violence are at worrying levels in South Africa”.
The latest crime stats revealed: that contact crimes increased by 18.5%, sexual offences by 11.0%, contact-related crimes by 4.9%, property-related crimes by 7.4%, commercial crimes by 19.9% while serious crimes went up by 19.6%.
Calling for collaboration between all arms of the police to combat the high crime rate, Rafadi said: “In the SAPS we have a division called crime intelligence and we have a division that falls in the detective side.
“The detective waits for a crime to happen and in the aftermath of the crime that happened when they can investigate. Look at the DNA, ballistic, take fingerprints, check bank records, etc,” said Rafadi.
“But when it comes to crime intelligence they do what we call collection of information so they are in combat, they can know many crimes especially which are committed by syndicates prior to them happening.
“So because of politics in the space of SAPS, they need to join hands so that our crime intelligence is maintained and the resources are channeled to them so that they can do enough collection and they can give information to the detectives.
“The two must partner so that crime is eliminated before it happens because organised crime syndicates they cram prior before any crime happens. So we don’t have to wait for cash in transit to happen and only then we want to find out who is staying in that village.
“Who is driving that particular car and who is hosting who? Crime intelligence is responsible for the collection of information prior to the crime happening,” said Rafadi.
