Following an announcement in Parliament last year by the National Police Commissioner General Riah Phiyega that she will be adopting a hands-on approach in respect of the Crime Intelligence environment, various steps have been initiated.
The steps taken are intended at Crime Intelligence becoming a highly focused unit which delivers on its core mandate of crime information gathering, and crime pattern analysis in close collaboration with other SAPS environments.
After careful consideration of the combined functioning of the Division Crime Intelligence and Protection & Security Services (CIPS), the National Commissioner today (16 January 2014), announced that she has taken a decision to change and purify this structure.
Towards the latter part of 2013, the CIPS structure was separated into two Divisions; Crime Intelligence and Protection & Security Services. The actual separation has now entered into an implementation phase.
After consultation with affected employees and other organized labour structures, employees who were previously with the Protection & Security Services and moved to Crime Intelligence as part of the CIPS formation, have now been taken back to their original positions in Protection & Security Services.
The Crime Intelligence environment is currently headed by the Acting Divisional Commissioner, Major General (Dr) Bongiwe Zulu, while the Protection & Security Services environment is headed by the Acting Divisional Commissioner, Major General Sello Kwena.
In order to build capacity, particularly in the Crime Intelligence environment, various posts have been advertised with a view of injecting more skills and leadership stability into this environment. The posts advertised are for Provincial Heads and various others.
The Intelligence environment forms an integral part of fighting crime in respect of both proactive and reactive policing, i.e. crime prevention, investigation of crimes as well as crime threat analysis.
“The separation of these divisions now allows sharing of focus for better command and control within both environments. This will ultimately lead to more effective and efficient policing. It also has led to Crime Intelligence working a lot closer with other SAPS environments,” said General Phiyega.
The SAPS will continue to explore new and improved approaches to continue ensuring that the people of South Africa are, and feel safe.