Cape Town Mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis last week announced that the City has submitted a proposal aimed at expanding municipal police powers to investigate crimes and boost conviction rates, particularly for gang-related, firearm, and drug offences.
This submission forms part of the City’s official response to draft national regulations on municipal policing powers, released in June by the national police minister for public comment.
“We absolutely must improve conviction rates for gang, gun, and drug crime in Cape Town. This is the only way to remove more criminals from the streets of long-suffering communities, where the poorest and most vulnerable are hardest hit,” Hill-Lewis said on Friday.
While he welcomed the police ministry’s move to consider expanded powers for City officers, Hill-Lewis stressed that the current draft regulations don’t go nearly far enough.
“To make a meaningful difference for communities, our officers must have the all-important power to investigate crime to really help the South African Police Service and prosecutors succeed.”
Low conviction rate
According to Hill-Lewis the City takes 400 illegal guns off the streets per year, but the conviction rate for these cases is just 5% due to our broken criminal justice system. With investigative powers, he said, the situation can be vastly improved on. He added that he’s written to newly appointed acting police minister Firoz Cachalia to ask for his backing.
“It is my hope that, far from being a placeholder, the acting minister will actually help us make Cape Town safer by advancing these regulatory proposals and supporting us to get the existing cooperation agreement with the police working well in our city,” he said.
Under the City’s proposal, the revised regulations would grant municipal police the authority to investigate crimes linked to key legislation, including the Firearms Control Act, Drugs and Drug Trafficking Act, Prevention of Organised Crime Act, and National Road Traffic Act.
It also covers certain property crimes like theft and housebreaking, as well as violent offences such as public violence, robbery, domestic abuse, assault, and intimidation targeting City frontline workers.
Municipal police services as it operates in the country today were established under Section 206(7) of the South African Police Service Amendment Act of 1998 that required a framework for the establishment of municipal police powers and its function that include traffic policing, enforcing municipal bylaws, and preventing crime.
Lack of detectives
In terms of this legislation municipal police officers are peace officers with the power to arrest, but their powers are generally limited to the municipality they serve.
Any person arrested by municipal police for a criminal offense must be handed over to the police to be charged and the case to be investigated.
Cape Town Mayco member for safety and security, JP Smith, says officers cannot be expected to effectively prevent crime without also having the authority to investigate it.
“Our officers need more than just the existing powers to search and arrest. They need criminal investigative powers to build prosecution-ready case dockets. City police are often the first responders at crime scenes, and must have the authority to preserve and lawfully obtain evidence, maintain an unbroken chain of custody, and initiate a prosecutable case file. Absent these powers, time-sensitive evidence is at risk of degradation or loss, witness recollections are not formally captured, and prospects of successful prosecution are diminished.”
“Our officers need more than just the existing powers to search and arrest. They need criminal investigative powers to build prosecution-ready case dockets
JP Smith
He warned that without these powers, valuable evidence degrades, witness accounts fade, and the likelihood of a successful prosecution drops sharply. “The chain of custody gets broken. Time-sensitive evidence can’t be used. And cases collapse before they even reach court,” he says.
Smith pointed to the City’s internal case-tracking data, revealing that low conviction rates are largely driven by a lack of detectives and investigative capacity within the police, delays in forensic reports such as ballistics and DNA, and slow court processes.
“We believe that our track record has shown that despite limited resources and policing powers, City police have made a massive impact in the fight against crime. With the necessary investigative powers, we are ready to do much more to improve the unacceptably low conviction rates,” he says.
Forensics
Furthermore, the City recommended that the power to investigate crime be accompanied by powers to conduct forensic, ballistic or other forms of examination of exhibits that require expert analysis; the ability to take witness statements and open dockets and real-time access to police crime stats info and criminal case status updates, and in the interim introduced a special training module to ensure all its officers have the necessary skills in anticipation of the devolution of investigative powers.
In its comment, the City further recommends that the minister consider introducing a framework for tiered or differentiated devolving of policing powers, where expanded powers may be granted to municipalities that meet criteria of capacity, accountability, and oversight.
This would ensure that only capable municipalities are entrusted with investigative functions, while incentivising others to build their readiness.
It is about improving public safety with practical reforms, said Smith.
“We are ready and willing to shoulder more responsibility in making our city safer, now national government must meet us halfway.”
