I think we can all agree that the detective component of the SAPS is vital to our ability to solve crimes and detect criminals.

No criminal can be convicted unless good detective work ensures that a water-tight case is constructed.

Yet, the entire criminal justice process is currently being short-circuited by poor detective work and the majority of criminals are simply allowed to get away with their actions.

According to DA spokesperson on safety and security Dianne Kohler Barnard calculations based on statistics provided by the SAPS, the Department of Justice and the Presidency indicate that only six out of every 100 crimes committed result in a conviction. The number of new cases bought before the courts has dropped by 22% over the past five years – not because of drastic reductions in the crime rate, but because of a increasing inability to identify and arrest criminals, and more than 300 000 cases are withdrawn or scrapped from the court rolls every year, in many instances as a result of poor or inadequate detective work.

On average, only half of the +/- 2 million crime scenes reported every year are never visited, due to a lack of experts to collect evidence!

This might not be too surprising, given that only 15% of SAPS members are dedicated to solving crimes, and that there are only 923 forensic experts in SAPS laboratories!

How on erath are they supposed to investigate nearly 2 million crimes a year?

Research conducted by the DA last year revealed that most detectives manage a case load of 40 or more cases, whereas the ideal case load is ten cases at any one time. Most stations have low detection rates of 20-40%, half of them have a rape and murder conviction of less than 20%. What is not too surprising is that the majority of these detectives have not completed specialised detective training.

Dianne Kohler Barnard told reporters yesterday that in order to improve the functioning of the criminal justice system, the ability of the SAPS to detect and solve crime must be dramatically improved.

In the DA’s crime policy, Conquering Fear, Commanding Hope launched earlier this year, a number of solutions were proposed to achieve this goal, which include the following:

• A policy shift from the prioritising of visible policing to an equal focus on the detective services
• Detective services being allocated a budget on a par with that of visible policing, and no less than R15 billion a year
• The recruitment of an additional 30 000 detectives
• The accelerated provision of equipment and resources
• Allowing lateral entry from the private sector into the detective services
• An improvement in the working conditions and salaries
• The creation of a real time, central, electronic crime statistics database

“If the above measures are speedily and effectively implemented then there is every chance that the success rate in the fight against crime can be dramatically improved,” said Kohler Barnard.