Serious crimes remain disturbingly high within the Boksburg Police Station precinct, while successful convictions continue to decline.
This was revealed in a reply to a Parliamentary question I asked which looked at the number of crimes and successful convictions for the 2015/16, 2016/17 and 2017/18 financial years.
For far too long, the government has neglected the safety of communities.
While some crimes have declined, others remain extremely high. The number of carjackings have increased by a staggering 49 per cent between the 2015/16 to 2017/18 financial years, with over four carjackings per month with a total of 55 being reported during the 2017/18 year.
What is equally disturbing is that there were no convictions.
The chronic under-staffing is no doubt leading to poor detective work as detectives are given caseloads that no human could investigate thoroughly.
I have previously highlighted the chronic under-staffing in Parliament, where the United Nations (UN) Office on Drugs and Crime prescribes a minimum police strength of one police officer to 220 people.
The current reality at the Boksburg Police Station is 1:490 residents, or put another way, the station would need a 123 per cent increase in its current strength to meet minimum standards of 1:220.
The conviction rate for the Boksburg Police Station for other crimes for the 2017/18 year are murder and house robbery had no convictions while 42 and 75 cases were reported respectively, rape had one conviction (2.3 per cent) out of 42 cases reported, house break-in had two convictions (0.5 per cent) out of 360 cases, while theft of motor vehicles had one convictions (0.37 per cent) out of 271 cases and drug-related crimes had seven convictions (3.6 per cent) out of 194 cases.
Whichever one looks at, the conviction rates are pathetic and victims of crime are not receiving justice and something drastic needs to happen.
We believe in a professional and properly resourced police service where the public have confidence in them and feel safe.
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