What powers do patrollers have?

Some Pretoria residents are alleging heavy-handedness and even bribery and assault by community patrollers.

Pretoria - The use of Gauteng community safety department’s patrollers to monitor central Pretoria streets was an effort by the provincial government to assist both the police and the public “with additional feet on the ground”, senior researcher at the Institute for Security Studies, Dr Johan Burger said on Wednesday.

“However, they are not ‘police officers’ or ‘peace officers’ as defined in section 1 of the Criminal Procedure Act, and therefore they do not have the powers that the Act bestows on these officers. They will not, for example, have the powers to stop and search persons and/or to arrest them – except under the circumstances provided for in the attached section 42 of the Act,” said Burger.

“In fact, their powers are limited to precisely the same as that of any other ordinary citizen, as described in section 42. Anything these patrollers do, that fall outside of the provisions of section 42, would be unlawful (of course, apart from specific situations where they are called upon by a police or peace officer for assistance as provided for in section 47 of the Act.”

For some time now, some Pretoria residents have been alleging heavy-handedness and even assault by the patrollers who man several streets in the city centre and surrounding areas, including densely-populated Sunnyside and Marabastad. The patrollers wait at major street intersections, summarily stopping and searching pedestrians and checking identification documents. They also arrest suspected criminals.

Burger said residents’ voluntarism should drive their co-operation with the patrollers.

“One could perhaps also allow for voluntary public co-operation with these patrollers when they make a friendly and reasonable request, keeping in mind the greater purpose of promoting safety and security, such as we see with the Radio 702 and Outsurance points people at busy intersections,” he said.

“Since these patrollers are, as far as I know, appointed by the Gauteng department of community safety, I would think that that is a good place to start for people with complaints.”

Some pedestrians alleged that apart from being frisked, they have been forced to pay bribes when they could not produce identification, or provide proof that they owned certain items which they had on their person.

Howard Dembovsky, national chairperson of the Justice Project SA said the patrollers had no right to “stop and search” anybody.

“Community patrollers, organised or not, have no legal standing beyond the rights afforded to every citizen. They have no right to stop and search anyone. Police have only limited powers to do so in terms of the Criminal Procedure Act. Patrollers may not demand any form of identification,” said Dembovsky.

“The community patrollers have a role to play as being the eyes and ears of the police. They are not police. If people have complaints about them, they should lodge them directly with the police station commander of the SA Police Service jurisdiction concerned.”

On Tuesday, Gauteng community safety’s Busaphi Nxumalo said the patrollers were making a difference in the fight against crime within the capital city.

“Patrollers are working with the police to combat crime in our communities. They are trained to deal with the society and obviously to search and effect arrests if necessary. Yes, they are not traffic officers or fully fledged cops, but they assist law enforcers and the community at large. Community Policing Forums are an active organisation and are legal,” she said.

“Crime in Gauteng has increased, more especially house robberies at night, so most of the time these guys don’t sleep, patrolling, while the people who are complaining about them are guarded by the very same patrollers. Patrollers also work at schools. Remember the violence that is continuously taking place in the school premises.”

She said without the community patrollers, the country would not manage to deal with rampant crime.

Regarding allegations of corruption by the patrollers, Nxumalo said she would not comment on the matter because no proof had been provided.

“Let the people go and open a case against the patroller immediately when they are forced to bribe the patrollers. Why do they give them money because they also know it’s a criminal act? Let’s not talk bad of our patrollers because they are doing it out of love for the community and they are not even paid,” she said.

“They risk with their lives on a daily basis. Lastly, they have a right to search anybody provided they have information and the reason to believe (that there is need to conduct a search). They are given permission by the station to conduct the operation.”

Pretoria central police station spokesperson, Warrant Officer Ann Poortman, said she would only respond to the allegations after consulting the station commander.

ANA