Recruiting For The Police At An Early Age
blurb:isstoday:080908police
8 September 2008: Recruiting For The Police At An Early Age
In 1999, the then National Commissioner of the South African Police Service, George Fivaz, stated that a quarter of his functional staff were illiterate. Mass recruitment of kitskonstables (instant constables) in the mid 1980’s, trained and tasked to repress uprisings against the state at the time, and the amalgamation of the ten homelands police forces with the South African Police (SAP), to form the South African Police Service (SAPS) in the mid 1990’s, were among the reasons advanced for the illiteracy crisis.
While it could be said that the new police service made the best of a bad situation given the transitional process that the country was going through, and the forced adoption of the homelands police and kitskonstabels into the service, the process ought to have been better managed at a higher level of the SAPS.
Notwithstanding this, it is evident that the quality of police and policing at the most basic level was challenged with members incapable of, for example, taking statements and driving police vehicles.
The SAPS minimum entry-level requirement is a senior certificate (Grade 12), proficiency in speaking, reading and writing in an official language and the possession of a valid drivers licence (code 08). While adequate on paper, it does not appear to be effective in terms of attracting the best candidates.
In recent months, there has been much talk by government and the private sector on a review of the criminal justice system. On policing, while performance of investigations and capacity constraints have been cited as weaknesses, a review of the SAPS recruitment policy is also necessary, and police should consider adopting more unique and innovative methods of recruiting members in order to ensure the best quality candidates.
An example of creative recruitment is the case of the Sacramento Police Department (SPD) in the USA, where police have been enlisting learners from local high schools in a Student Trainee Programme to work at police stations, during weekends and school holidays, performing non-enforcement, administrative tasks with other SPD personnel. Learners must be at least 16 years old, meet the SPDs Standards for Drug Usage Test and pass a pre-selection interview, a background investigation and a final selection interview. Learners undergo tests that are meant to identify weak areas, and they are accordingly advised on relevant classes. Once in the programme, the learners, known as Community Service Officers, undergo physical training at police academies, work 20- 24 hours a week, and are paid a stipend for their services.
On completion of Grade 12, learners are required to pursue a tertiary education for between two to four years, and once completed, they have the choice of pursuing a career in the police. Thus, by the age of 21, learners are equipped with a degree or diploma, and have also acquired sufficient policing experience. As new constables, they undergo field training at the police academy and are tasked to deal with criminal matters. In this way, the SPD basically ‘grows’ its own police officers.
According to the former Chief of Police of the SPD, Albert Najera, this system of hiring learners from high school level is very popular (especially with single mothers concerned with the well-being of their children) and it provides the children with structure and role-modelling. A recent in-house survey of the SPD found that 80% of the executive staff of the SPD started off as police students.
Recent statistics released by South Africa’s Minister of Safety and Security show that 3 478 children are being detained across the country for various crimes. The National Prosecuting Authority's figures on children in diversion programmes, from July 1999 to December 2005, are approximately 115 582, averaging 20 000 children per year being diverted. Attacks by children on children at schools have also been featuring more often according to media reports.
When one considers the above, it is apparent that children need to be directed away from a life of crime, and the SPD's Community Service Officer project is an example of how this can be achieved. It not only gets children off the streets, but it gets them interested in the field of policing and is a sure way of providing them with a career path.
The SAPS must begin adopting programmes such as this to ensure the acquisition of the best possible recruits. At the same time the number of youth in diversion programmes will be minimised and criminal activity will certainly be reduced.
Bilkis Omar, Crime, Justice and Politics Programme, ISS Tshwane (Pretoria)
