WARNING: This is Version 1 of my old archive, so Photos will NOT work and many links will NOT work. But you can find articles by searching on the Titles. There is a lot of information in this archive. Use the SEARCH BAR at the top right. Prior to December 2012; I was a pro-Christian type of Conservative. I was unaware of the mass of Jewish lies in history, especially the lies regarding WW2 and Hitler. So in here you will find pro-Jewish and pro-Israel material. I was definitely WRONG about the Boeremag and Janusz Walus. They were for real.
Original Post Date: 2004-05-19 Time: 11:28:18 Posted By: Jan
[Quite some time back they disbanded the Elite Brixton Murder and Robbery Squad in Johannesburg. They may claim to care about crime… but if they disband elite units who specialise in certain tasks that certainly does not seem like the right thing to do. Now those specialists become what? Just another Policeman on the beat? How stupid. Our Government loves crime and loves criminals. Jan]
Elite police units in Pretoria specialising in preventing hijacking, narcotics, theft and housebreaking crime syndicates are to be disbanded.
The highly trained detectives from these units will be sent back to police stations around the city.
But Pretoria police management says there is absolutely no reason for panic.
The four Pretoria Area Task Teams affected are the: Anti-Hijacking Task Team, Narcotics Task Team, Computer Theft Task Team and the House Breaking and Theft Task Team.
‘There is no need for the public to panic’
The first team to be disbanded is the Narcotics Task Team, which will cease to exist by the end of this week. The others will follow in the weeks ahead.
The teams were established because of the need to have a single unit tasked specifically with investigating certain crimes such as hijackings.
The four task teams comprising 90 policemen and women were established in the middle of last year and have notched up major successes, recovering stolen property, drugs, vehicles, endangered species and precious metals worth an estimated R50-million, as well as smashing dozens of violent syndicates and arresting hundreds of hardened criminals.
The narcotics team alone has recovered drugs worth R2,5-million and platinum worth R10,8-million from an international theft syndicate. The unit has also successfully ensured the conviction of 63 drug dealers, with another 76 suspects still awaiting trial.
Several task team detectives on Tuesday expressed outrage at the move. They said the units were “vital and still desperately needed”.
‘The war on crime will continue’
“Whether police management likes to admit it or not, crime is a major problem in this city and needs drastic attention,” said a detective who did not want to be named.
Experienced policemen would now be taken away from areas where their expertise was desperately needed, he said.
The detective said the cases dealt with by the units were referred to them by police stations throughout Tshwane. “These cases can then be given the full attention of detectives who have the necessary skills to deal with them.”
“By having such teams we also relieve other station-level detectives of their massive workload, freeing them up and allowing them to handle other cases,” said the detective.
The detective claimed that the disbanding of the units would create an ideal environment for criminal activity in the city.
He said they had received notice of the closures from Director Vincent Ntengo, who heads the Pretoria Area Detective Services. “We were told to provide a list of all the names of the members in the task teams to him by close of business on Tuesday. We were told that all of those on the lists would be relocated to stations in the Pretoria region.”
The police officer said Ntengo had refused to give a reason for the move, on the grounds that “the members are not allowed to question the orders and must do as told”.
Police spokesperson Captain Piletji Sebola confirmed that detectives from all four task teams were being redeployed. He said the teams had completed their specific mandates. “At the time of their establishment, the task teams were given a specific mandate to address the problems of hijackings, housebreakings and theft. The mandate and the time-frame has expired.”
Sebola said task teams usually operated for three months, after which the crime situation was reviewed. He gave the assurance that Pretoria police management would review the city’s crime situation to determine whether task teams were still necessary.
The case dockets would be reassigned to other policemen. “There is no need for the public to panic. The war on crime will continue to be fought and won,” he said.
This article was originally published on page 1 of The Pretoria News on May 19, 2004
Source: Independent Online (IOL)
URL: http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?click_id=15&ar…/p>