Cape Town - The Civilian Secretariat for Police Service has found that a majority of police stations it visited last year have victim-friendly rooms and female members in each shift.
The finding was made in the report submitted to Parliament last week in line with provisions of the Domestic Violence Act.
The report is covering the period from April to September 2021 following visits to 460 police stations.
According to the report, the SAPS national instruction provides that every police station should have a victim-friendly room to interview in privacy the victims of gender-based violence crimes.
“Should there be no victim-friendly rooms, arrangements should be made to interview a victim in private by using cubicles or available offices,” it said.
The report said a majority of police stations reported to have a private interviewing space.
“Eighty five percent had a designated victim-friendly room, 7% were using an office which is specifically designated for private interviewing when there is a need, 4% were using cubicles at the community service centres and the other 2% would make means to ensure privacy when there was a need.”
However, the report also said there were 10 police stations that indicated not to have any private space due to lack of office space.
The report said the sufficient availability of female officers in all police stations was critical to SAPS.
It also said the minister of police had developed a six-point plan as a blueprint for police response to bender-based violence crime.
“One of the six points entails ensuring that there is a female member posted in each shift to be able to provide a complainant to assist victims who prefer to be assisted by a female person.
“This view is supported by a number of research studies which showed that a number of victims of gender-based violence prefer to be served by a female as this was likely to reduce the risk of secondary traumatisation.”
The Civilian Secretariat for Police Service said its findings indicated that in 449 of the police stations visited there were female police members deployed in all shifts while in 10 females were deployed in some of the shifts but not in all due to shortage of female members.
“This lack of deployment is due to actual shortages of female members in these identified police stations, which is something the SAPS needs to take into consideration during their recruitment and deployment processes,” the report said.
Political Bureau