Many laws will need to change for metro cops to be granted investigative powers – experts
Members of the metro police department are calling for limited investigative powers to allow them to prosecute cases within their mandate.
Picture: Facebook/COJ People’s MMC Public Safety
JOHANNESBURG - Experts have welcomed the idea of metro police departments being granted investigative powers to take cases to court but said many laws in the country would need to change for that to happen.
Metro police members are calling for limited investigative powers to allow them to prosecute cases within their mandate.
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A 2019 parliamentary research paper found a major challenge for metro police is their limitations in terms of investigative powers for traffic and by-law-related crimes.
A criminologist from the University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN), Professor Nirmala Gopal, said it’s not within the Constitution for metro police to investigate cases.
“If we have to now expand the mandate of metro police who fall within the local government authority, we [will] then need to take it back to the executive authority and have their mandate changed.”
Crime expert, Dr Guy Lamb, said giving metro police investigative powers is important, but it needs to come with rigorous training and oversight mechanisms.
“From the national police's point of view they take a national, provincial, cluster, and precinct area of approach, they don’t take a city approach to policing.”
In 2023, Parliament heard that the country has seen a drastic decline in police detectives, down almost 10,000 in seven years.