TimesLIVE reports that the Police and Prisons Civil Rights Union (Popcru) does not believe police quarterly crime statistics provide an accurate account of crime trends.

According to the union’s president, Zizamele Cebekhulu-Makhaza, the figures were not aligned with the realities facing their members and communities, and the situation might be even worse than indicated. On Wednesday, Cebekhulu-Makhaza opened this year’s three-day policing indaba in Boksburg. Under the theme “Building Ideal Policing and Corrections for the 21st Century,” the indaba is intended to reshape the landscape of law enforcement. He said the first question to be asked was whether SA’s police service was failing in the fight against crime, in regard to which the latest quarterly crime stats released by minister Bheki Cele painted a bloody picture. Cebekhulu-Makhaza said there are several serious underlying issues and flaws in the data collection methodologies that had to be addressed, such as inaccurate data collated from each province and department, the underreporting of crimes, and variances in the interpretation and classification of crimes. Together, these might have resulted in significant discrepancies.   He said it was time for a thorough review of the figures and for discussions to rectify the discrepancies, to better represent the true state of the country’s crime situation. Cebekhulu-Makhaza noted that police killings continued unabated and said they were seeking to develop plans to strengthen relationships between police and communities.

• Read the full original of the informative report in the above regard by Phathu Luvhengo at BusinessLive

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