CAPE TOWN, January 12 (ANA) – The country’s murder rate dropped for the first three quarters of the 2016/17 financial year compared to the same period last year, acting national commissioner Khomotso Phahlane said on Thursday.
“We have realised a 2.3 percent decrease in as far as murder is concerned, compared to an 8.8 percent increase in 2015/16 financial year at the end of quarter three,” Phahlane said while briefing journalists on the the “Safer Festive Season #BackToBasics” operations conducted between October 1 and December 31 last year.
During this period, 712 persons were arrested for murder, while 419 were arrested for attempted murder.
“13,250 were arrests related to contact crimes so those who would have committed murder would have been included in this figure,” said Phahlane.
Overall, contact crimes decreased by 5.3 percent if compared with quarter three of 2015/16, contract-related crimes were down by 5.4 percent, property related crimes by 2.2 percent and other serious crimes by 5.3 percent.
Police, however, remain concerned about so-called trio crimes – carjackings, business robberies and robberies at private residences.
During the past financial year, hijackings saw the biggest increase of 14.3 percent.
Phahlane indicated this trend continued during quarter three of the current financial year, although he declined to give figures.
“Even during the period we are reporting… car hijackings have increased. It is an area we are focussing on to get it dealt with accordingly.”
There was a markable increase in the number of crimes detected as a result of police action, which Phahlane believes was a result of successful policing in the areas of drug-related crimes, the illegal possession of firearms and ammunition, driving under the influence of drugs or liquor.
There was a total of 99,266 crimes detected as a result of police action in quarter three of 2016/17, an increase of 8.4 percent when compared to the corresponding period last year.
Police arrested 83,479 people from October 1 to December 31 last year during 705,639 police operations. Over two million searches were conducted during this time, resulting in the confiscation of 1,060 firearms, 8,691 rounds of ammunition, while 669 vehicles which were either stolen or used in the commission of a crime were seized.
The Western Cape led with the number of arrests at 19,625, followed by KwaZulu-Natal with 16,760, and Gauteng with 10, 412.
KwaZulu-Natal police led with the most number of firearms (302), ammunition (2699), vehicle (241) and explosives (6) seizures.
Mpumalanga police confiscated more than 3.3 million grams of drugs, mostly dagga and khat, followed by the Western Cape with 2.2 million grams of drugs. However, when it came to the amount of units (tablets) confiscated, the Western Cape was far ahead of other provinces, with the number of mandrax tablets seized alone totalling more than half a million (538,377).
Phahlane attributed the improvement in the statistics to, among others, high visibility policing, targeted deployments and operations, intelligence-driven operations, and hands-on command by senior managers in the SA Police Service.
– African News Agency (ANA)
