Appointing the national police commissioner and his deputies must be an open and competitive process run by a selection panel appointed by the president, says the National Planning Commission.
Such a process – as well as clear and objective selection criteria – would ensure that the police leadership was “respected and held in high esteem” by police as well as communities, the commission said.
The commission also called for the demilitarisation of the police, saying militarisation had led to increased violence in the service and more police murders.
These and other recommendations aimed at improving the effectiveness and credibility of the police are contained in the proposed National Development Plan for the next 20 years, published by the commission on Friday.
“A professional police service is essential for a strong criminal justice system,” the commission said. “We propose linking the police code of conduct and a code of professionalism to promotion and disciplinary regulations.”
Some of the steps required to turn the police into a professional service had already been taken, including the development of a code of conduct.
What remained was for the code to be integrated with police human resource systems. And police members who failed to live up to the code must be punished.
The commission recommended that professional obligations of police officers be spelt out more clearly to avoid a blurring of roles and functions. It cited mediating domestic disputes and relocating homeless people as functions currently being performed by the police instead of the Department of Social Development.
It recommended a two-stream system be developed over the next five years, made up of basic and officer streams.
The basic stream would allow for the recruitment and selection of non-commissioned officers, whose rise within the service would depend on training and competence gained from experience.
In the officer stream, commissioned officers would be selected on criteria and standards set by a professional body.
Direct recruitment to the officer stream would be based on set criteria, followed by further training and testing.
“The basic stream and officer stream can be flexible to allow aspiring officers to work towards meeting the criteria for consideration to the officers’ corps,” the commission said. “Similarly, officers can lose their commissions if they fail to live up to standards.”
The commission said remilitarisation had not won greater respect for police or higher conviction rates.
“If anything, it has boosted violence in the service and seen an increase in murders of police,” it said.
“The commission believes that the police should be demilitarised to turn the force into a civilian, professional service.”
The process of demilitarisation began in 1994 but was reversed in 2000. The process was formalised with the reintroduction of military ranks last year.
The remilitarisation happened because of the belief that police would command greater respect from communities if they had military ranks. Evidence since then has been to the contrary.
“The police will earn the respect of communities if they are efficient and effective. Military ranks might create fear, but they do not instil respect,” the commission said.
“Critically, they do not lead to a greater rate of arrests and convictions. Instead, militarisation can contribute to increased violence by police and undue heavy-handed conduct, deterring effective investigations.”
The commission quoted the 2011 report of the Independent Complaints Directorate, which showed an 800 percent increase in reported incidents of torture by the police. - Political Bureau