Reply With QuoteHi R/cst, howzit,any pics of the new cars if you can, please
About time we got decent vechiles for our Flying Squad, I am now jealous of my buddies in the unit.World first for Port Elizabeth Flying Squad
CRIMINALS in the Eastern Cape were served high-performance notices yesterday that three of the world’s most technically advanced police cars would be hunting them down from today.
And they would be recording every second of the action to beat the lawbreakers.
The 245km/h cars – valued at a total of about R1,2-million – were handed over to the local Flying Squad by General Motors South Africa as part of its ongoing programme to combat crime and “make Port Elizabeth a safer place in which to live and work”.
The latest additions take the Flying Squad’s fleet from five to eight vehicles. The equipment – including six on-board cameras, wireless computer communication and four audio channels – for the Saab 2,8-litre V6 Aero models – was provided by Panasonic. Lights, sirens and radio equipment were fitted by the police radio technical unit at Mount Road.
Panasonic regional managing director Brett Howell said the equipment, fitted locally, had been specially provided by the company in Japan and the three Flying Squad Saabs would be the first among any international police force to go on patrol using the technology.
“The police car system – called the Arbitrator Mark Two – is scheduled to be fitted into patrol vehicles in the US only later this month and is undergoing approval in Europe, so the PE Flying Squad cars are a world first.”
Squad operational commander Captain Rassie Erasmus said the new cars would be a huge asset to the city’s anti-crime effort. “The drivers can’t wait to get on the road with the Saabs – they’re spectacular and wonderfully equipped.
“As with all our squad drivers, the officers behind the wheels of the Saabs have passed a national high-speed, advanced drivers’ course, held in Benoni.”
And Erasmus joked to squad members: “Remember, we can check your speeds at all times through the satellite navigation systems fitted as standard equipment, so don’t try sprinting from robot to robot.”
The Swedish-built Saabs have a top speed of 245km/h and accelerate from 0-100km/h in just over seven seconds.
GMSA president Steve Koch said the presentation of the high-performance cars was aimed at enabling the crack police unit to respond more swiftly to priority crimes.
The company had already presented eight Opel Corsa pick-ups – each retailing at about R100000 – to neighbourhood watches in the city as part of its existing I-Patrol anti-crime programme.
Mount Road police cluster commander Dawie Rabie said the Saabs would take the Flying Squad’s fleet from five to eight vehicles.
“The unit has to attend to high-priority incidents, like cash-in-transit heists, armed robberies and hijackings all over the city,” said Assistant Commissioner Rabie. He said statistics for last year showed that the PE Flying Squad had attended to 9874 complaints, made 600 arrests and recovered 503 stolen vehicles.
http://www.epherald.co.za/article.aspx?id=473190
Hi R/cst, howzit,any pics of the new cars if you can, please
Police Commissioner to be General
Johannesburg - National Police Commissioner Bheki Cele will soon be referred to as "general", he said in Johannesburg on Thursday.
"It will not be a distant future when you will be speaking to 'general' rather than 'commissioner'," Cele said at a news briefing following the launch of a television programme to be used in the fight against crime.
Moves to change the ranks within the police force were underway after President Jacob Zuma made the call earlier this year.
"The process is underway... internally we are almost there."
Deputy national commissioners Hamilton Hlela and Magda Stander were busy compiling the changes to the ranks and these would be submitted to Minister of Police Nathi Mthethwa soon.
Stander, speaking to Sapa on the sidelines of the briefing said the ranks were "demilitarised" in 1995 and this had an impact on the SA Police Service.
The new ranks also formed part of a broader move to change the police from a "service" to a "force".
The need for this was highlighted by Zuma as he addressed commissioners of the country's police stations in Pretoria last month.
Stander said the changes would command more respect.
Hlela said the ranks would be constable, sergeant, warrant officer, lieutenant, captain, major, colonel and brigadier. They would also include major general, lieutenant general and general.
- SAPA
Cele wants fire power for cops
Cape Town - New national police commissioner Bheki Cele called on Wednesday for a change in the law to make sure police can shoot at dangerous criminals instead of being "handcuffed" by the Criminal Procedure Act.
Cele told MPs he would ask Parliament to amend section 49 of the law when it reconvenes in August, as well as section 26, to give police greater powers to stop domestic violence.
He said the post-apartheid version of section 49 forced police to think twice before shooting, even when faced with armed bank robbers who had no scruples about killing whoever stood in their way.
"They plan properly and part of their plan is to kill people in their way. They plan for six months and that is why they don't get empty banks," he told Parliament's portfolio committee on police.
Police fatalities
The plain-talking commissioner said the high number of police fatalities had proved that when faced with hardened criminals they could not afford to hesitate and wonder whether by law they had the right to use their firearms.
"Either he acts correctly or we bury him."
It was up to lawmakers to "take collective responsibility" to ensure that the law was fair and did not afford criminals "greater rights" than their victims.
"One thing we must relook at is how to allow police to do their work. We are not encouraging rookies or cowboys but we are not handcuffing police to die alone.
"We will have to come back to Parliament to say can we walk this path together."
Domestic abuse
He said section 26 of the act must also be changed to remove an onus on police to ask permission before entering premises where they believe domestic abuse was underway.
"Here we have a man busy tapping his wife and (police have to say) 'please can I come in?' It cannot be," he said.
"That person will cry until she is silent because she is dead," he said.
Cele, the former safety MEC in KwaZulu-Natal, has been in hot water for calling on police to have the right to shoot to kill but said last week when he was appointed as South Africa's top policeman, that he stood by his statement.
He told Sapa he had political backing for his plea to Parliament to review the act, because Police Minister Nathi Mthethwa also wanted the two sections rewritten.
Mthethwa's spokesperson said last month the minister had asked for a law change because officers were hesitant to shoot at suspects for fear of falling foul of the law.
As the law stands police are allowed to use lethal force only if their lives or those of innocent bystanders were in danger.
They are not allowed to shoot at fleeing suspects or those suspected of having committed serious crimes, as was the case before the Constitutional Court struck down the apartheid-era version of section 49.
Cele said his top priority as commissioner was to ensure that women and children were safe.
- SAPA
Open for debate?!?!
slightly old news, just wanted to hear your opinions on the matter especially from some of you guys that are exprience. take note of the recent mistaken identity incident in PTA where woman was shot dead. Members of the Flying Squad had been "looking out" for a hijacked grey Toyota Corolla when they spotted a car fitting the description. "The police put out their blue lights for the driver to stop, but he didn't, so police fired shots."
Cop shot dead after warning
2009-10-05 09:44
Pretoria - Any amendments to the so-called shooting law will come too late for a policeman from Pretoria.
His verbal warning to a robber to drop his weapon probably cost him his life over the weekend.
Captain Charl Scheepers, the operational commander of crime prevention at the Brooklyn police station in Pretoria, apparently warned a robber three times to drop his weapon on Saturday night before the robber shot him twice in the stomach. Scheepers fired no shots.
The issue around when police members were allowed to shoot criminals is currently being debated by Bheki Cele, the national police chief, Nathi Mthethwa, the minister of police, and President Jacob Zuma.
The three leaders agreed that Section 49 of the Criminal Procedure Act, also known as the "shooting law", should be amended to prevent police members from losing their lives unnecessarily.
Robbery
Scheepers and two colleagues reacted to a complaint at a construction site in Lynnwood at about 23:00 on Saturday evening. Police spokesperson, Sergeant Lynnette Erasmus, said Scheepers and his colleagues heard from inside the property how doors were being broken down.
"The captain peered around the corner and saw a suspect or suspects. Only he (Scheepers) would know how many people were there," said Erasmus.
"He warned the suspect to put down his firearm. That is when they shot him."
He was shot twice in the stomach.
"I've been shot, I've been shot!" Scheepers apparently told colleagues before he stumbled a few metres and fell down, said director André Wiese, station commander of the Brooklyn police station.
One of Scheepers's colleagues tried to stop the bleeding while his other colleague chased after the robber and his accomplices.
Scheeper died a few hours later in hospital due to his injuries.
Arrests
Erasmus said a police helicopter was immediately called to the scene.
The helicopter staff and police officers on the ground arrested 11 suspects.
One of them was arrested formally on Sunday after he allegedly confessed to his involvement in the incident. The rest were set free.
Blood was apparently found on the suspect as well as clothes fitting a description given to police. It would be part of the police investigation whether this man pulled the trigger.
Scheepers's colleagues and community members found the murder weapon on Sunday afternoon in grass near the scene.
Jean-Jacques Scheepers, 18, said on Sunday that his mother, Anna-Marie, had informed him shortly after the shooting that his father had been shot. His sister, Liza- Marí, 11, was at their home in Lynnwood and his brother, Armand, 14, was at a church event near Pretoria.
Son 'cried and was angry'
Jean-Jacques immediately went to the hospital where he stayed until his father - "who was made to be a policeman" - died at about 01:45.
When he received the call about his father, he "firstly hoped he wouldn't die".
"I cried and was angry because they had shot him."
"Since then everyone has been calling to hear if he was the one who was shot. Then I have to tell them my father passed away."
Computer equipment that was stolen during the robbery was later found near the scene of the crime.
- Beeld
Cops in uniform 'gang-raped me'
2009-10-27 08:13
Johannesburg - A mother-of-three was allegedly “repeatedly” raped by two uniformed policemen in Kempton Park in the early hours of Sunday morning.
When he heard about it, Martie Olivier’s husband, Sarel, went to the Kempton Park police station and assaulted various police officers on duty before being brought under control.
He said they were unable to lay a charge of rape later that day because the police refused to take their statements.
Although rape victims are not normally identified, the couple gave permission for their names to be published.
Nightmare
The couple’s nightmare apparently began shortly after midnight. Olivier said he and his wife, 29, were at a braai at his parents’ house in Birch Acres on Saturday night, after which they went to a nearby pub for a drink.
Olivier said that on his way home, he drove into a driveway and out again as he made a U-turn. A marked police van suddenly stopped in front of the couple’s Toyota Run-X.
Two men in police uniform climbed out of the van and moved to the driver’s side of their car before yanking the door open, he said. They then allegedly threw him into the back of the van without explanation.
"One of the policemen approached me and asked what I was prepared to give them in exchange for my husband’s release,” said Martie.
She gave him the R400 she had on her.
However, the man asked: “Do you really love your husband? Is there nothing more you can do?” He then allegedly climbed into the driver’s seat of the Toyota and drove toward the Kempton Park police station. The police van followed, she said.
Olivier, who was in the police van, said: “About 200m from the police station I noticed the car pulling off the road, but I thought nothing of it. It’s the police after all.”
At the police station, the policeman driving the van opened the doors at the back and told him he had been caught driving under the influence, but that he was free to go.
The other policeman arrived shortly afterwards in the Toyota with Olivier’s wife in the passenger’s seat. When Olivier climbed into their car, she told him she had been raped.
Traumatised
“She appeared traumatised and I could see her underwear had been torn,” he said.
It was then that he attacked police officers with bare fists. Olivier’s hand was still bandaged on Monday.
“When I returned to the car, my wife was gone. I thought she had run away.”
She allegedly lost consciousness when one of the policemen slammed her head into the dashboard while her husband was inside the police station. There were two policemen in the car with her when her husband was inside the station.
She said she came to on a lounge floor in an unfamiliar house. Her next recollection was of a security guard who woke her in a flowerbed at Boston Business College.
“He asked me why the police had dropped me off there. I couldn’t give him an answer,” she said.
After hours of searching, Olivier said he saw his wife in a traumatised condition walking from the Boston Business College at “exactly 07:20”.
Injuries
He immediately took her to the police station, after which she was medically examined at a nearby trauma centre, where evidence of a rape was found on her body and dress. She also had visible injuries.
When Beeld saw her, she had an enormous bump on her forehead.
“I have scratch marks and bruises between my legs and on my body. In our car there was also blood from the first time I was raped.”
She was given anti-retroviral medication to protect her against HIV.
The couple laid charges of rape, assault and bribery on Monday.
She told Beeld: “I don’t remember everything exactly. I was so nervous when I had to lay the charge. I didn’t even want to go there. I don’t trust anyone now,” she said.
She is, however, determined to “stay strong”, adding: “Who knows who will be next on their list?”
Incoherent
Gauteng police spokesperson, Superintendent Eugene Opperman, said on Monday that Martie Olivier "was too incoherent" for police to be able to take down her statement after the alleged rape.
Opperman also said Olivier could remember "too little" and couldn't provide enough information.
She was, however, medically examined and the couple's vehicle was also searched. Charges of rape, assault and bribery were finally laid on Monday morning and the couple's statements were taken.
"The case is now being investigated," said Opperman.
Police spokesperson Senior Superintendent Vish Naidoo added that charges of this nature were regarded in a very serious light.
- Beeld
Cop rape: Still no suspects
Johannesburg - The police vehicle that was driven by two uniformed police officers when they allegedly raped an East Rand mother early on Sunday morning, had been signed out unlawfully at the time of the incident.
As the police still do not know who was driving the vehicle, no suspects have been identified yet.
Beeld on Tuesday reported how Martie Olivier, 29, (who gave permission to be named) was raped repeatedly after she and her husband, Sarel Olivier, were stopped early on Sunday morning by the two police officers.
The couple have laid charges of rape, assault and bribery.
According to Sarel, an official from the Kempton Park police station called him on Tuesday to say that the relevant squad car that he had described, was being used without permission at the time of the alleged rapes.
"They don't even know what is going on at their own police station," said Olivier.
Identification parade
Police asked him and his wife to be present at an identification parade to try to find the guilty officials.
"It would have taken place on Thursday but will now apparently only happen next week. I think the sooner it takes place, the better," he said.
Police spokesperson Superintendent Eugene Opperman confirmed on Tuesday that the identification parade would take place next week.
"The police and the Independent Complaints Directorate are investigating the case and are taking it very seriously, but we are not going to discuss its progress in the newspapers," he said.
- Beeld
'Cops sold confiscated drugs'
2009-10-27 21:33
Johannesburg - Senior police officers raided flats around Gauteng for drugs only to sell them to drug lords, the South Gauteng High Court heard on Tuesday.
At one point, a man who had collected the drugs to sell for the officers was arrested by another police unit for drug possession. A day later he was released without any charges laid against him.
This was the testimony of Norman Kokoeng, who told the court he was recruited as a police informer by Senior Superintendent Dumisani Jwara, 43, between 2004 and 2005.
Jwara, Captain Landro Mokgosani, 39, and Captain Victor Jwili, 38, pleaded not guilty to 13 charges on Monday. The fourth accused, Captain Sakhepi Caiphus Shange, died in police custody in July.
Syndicate
According to Kokoeng: "He [Jwara] called to say he was promoted from Vereeniging, to a senior superintendent position on the West Rand, and suggested that he should de-register me as an informant in Vereeniging and register me as his informer in the West Rand."
"He then introduced me to Captain Victor Jwili and Captain Sakhepi Caiphus Shange... He told me not to worry as we will operate like we did in the Vaal."
Once this was done, they and other officers continued to raid flats in search of drugs.
"We usually found drugs, money and 419 scam documents... Depending on the amount of money, we sometimes took the cash only and left the drugs."
On occasion they encountered problems as most Nigerians they targeted called their "police officer friends" and told them of the raids. This prompted them to abandon their operation or conduct it properly, by declaring the drugs, instead of selling them.
Dealing at church
At one point Kokoeng's friend, Kenneth Bogopane was arrested for drug possession after the two had collected cocaine, Mandrax and ecstasy from Jwili at a church in Mohlakeng, Randfontein. Jwili, 38, was conducting the church choir at the time.
"Accused one [Jwara] said he'll sort it out... Kenneth was released a day later. He was never charged, never appeared in court," said Kokoeng.
Bogopane's release from custody made up one of the charges against the officers - defeating the ends of justice - along with racketeering, drug dealing, fraud, theft and attempted theft.
The drug trafficking charges relate to their alleged selling of 40 "bullets" of cocaine for R80 000 cash in Hillbrow in 2005.
Airport drugs
On October 3 2007 the three men allegedly stole 198kg of cocaine from OR Tambo International Airport and sold it for R1 425 000.
Six days later they allegedly attempted, but failed, to steal 5.7kg of cocaine from the same airport.
Asked during cross examination to explain how they priced their drugs, Kokoeng said: "When you get the drugs from police, you don't go around trying to figure out how much they are worth... the idea is to get rid of them, so when drugs would normally sell for R60 000, we will sell them for R20 000".
Cross examination continues on Wednesday morning.
- SAPA
SAPS Gauteng 10111 down
The South African Police Service, Gauteng 10111 Centre is experiencing a telephone system failure.
The centre has not been receiving calls from the public since approximately after 13:00 Tuesday afternoon.
The public has been advised to call the nearest police stations directly.
The SETA technicians are busy attending to the problem.
Published on the Web by IOL on 2009-11-17
Is this the South African version of 911?
Yes but only for police not other emergency services. How long have you been gone, this has been the number for ages?Originally Posted by marius72za
OIC I thought the police is a emergency service? If its not working, then who do you phone?
10111 is a number you can phone anywhere in SA to get the police, the call goes through to a regional centre, and then usually the flying squad or similar is sent. Or at least that's the theory. As I wrote above it has been around for many years already.
Who do you phone if it isn't working? As it says, your local police station, all of whose numbers are in the phone book. Not ideal...but I've never heard of it not working before, although I suppose it must have happened sometime.
It doesn't matter, nobody comes anyway.
Rather push the panic button on your alarm system and let the security company's armed response sort it out.
Go to the police station the next day to get a case number for your insurance claim.
But I hear that the SAPS use their squad cars as employee shuttles? Whats the response times?
Can vary greatly, from "pretty quick" to "not at all."
Posting Permissions
