Crime statistics are usually regarded with caution: in South Africa they are treated with outright scepticism. A committee of inquiry has rejected this routine scepticism, but found many areas in need of urgent attention. The committee’s recommendations, only some of which are covered here, have been accepted by the Minister of Safety and Security and the Commissioner of the SAPS.

Police crime data generally face limitations associated with varying reporting and recording tendencies. In the past in South Africa, these were compounded by mistrust and suspicion associated with the apartheid government. The new democracy has not however brought an acceptance of police statistics.

Recognising this, and the need for reliable information to successfully reduce crime, the Minister of Safety and Security appointed the Committee of Inquiry into the Collection, Processing and Publication of Crime Statistics in May 1997. The Committee made recommendations in respect of:

Types of crimes statistics that should be collected.



Methods of collection and sources of error.



The way in which the SAPS identifies crime trends and the department’s capacity in this regard.



The manner in which crime statistics are made available to the public.

Assisted by international experts, the Committee found no single best practice for collecting crime statistics. Nevertheless, many problems relating to information systems and to the role of police officials in recording information, were identified.

Poor information culture

The absence of an ‘information culture’ in the SAPS underlies the multitude of problems affecting crime statistics. At station level, this has had adverse effects for the reliability of crime statistics.

In practice, many SAPS officials do not make optimal use of crime statistics in their daily policing activities. Not only does training not focus on information-based policing, but the Crime Administration System (CAS) — the police’s main computerised information system — is also perceived to be inaccessible and unhelpful, even for enthusiastic users. Because the anticipated benefits of crime statistics are few for many SAPS members, data input receives little attention, and the quality of the statistics suffers accordingly.

The reliability of police crime statistics is limited by the following technical problems:

The system is too complex to be user friendly without proper training. As a result, much of the data is inconsistent or incomplete.



The enormity of the CAS database since historical data is not archived.



Delays in obtaining statistics from non-computerised stations (which amount to less than a quarter of all stations).



Other problems include network downtime, faulty programmes and the inadequate validation of data when incorrect variables are entered.

Sources of human error include:

The lack of an information culture in the SAPS.

Insufficient training (no curricula and national standard of training currently exists).

Inadequate physical and human resources as well as computer support at station level.

A high turnover of skilled personnel.

The Committee recommended sixteen priorities to address these weaknesses.

A trade-off will have to be made between what the system can provide and what the users’ of crime information want. Ultimately, the needs of the police should take precedence: a balance should be struck between the operational needs of the police, and statistics gathered for research purposes.

Public access

The Committee recommended more regular releases of crime statistics to the public. If too little information is released too seldom, the credibility of the data when it is made available, will probably be questioned. Furthermore, when public information is kept to a minimum (especially on an issue as important as crime), the number of requests is likely to increase.

The main problem is that publicity regarding what statistics are available, and where and when they can be accessed, is inadequate. Relations with the media in this regard are particularly poor.

The Committee recommended releasing a short monthly ‘crime brief’ which describes the latest crime statistics. Other suggestions included clarifying the Minister’s directive regarding the release of crime statistics and improving SAPS’s capacity to disseminate information. Placing crime information officers at station level would improve the situation.

Antoinette Louw,
Institute for Security Studies