BY NHLANHLA MBATHA
It is infuriating to watch how law enforcement agencies and self-promoting politicians ignore one simple reality: when they make grand media statements on live television, the perpetrators of crime are watching too.
Every televised announcement that police are “closing in,” that arrest is “imminent,” or that a new task team has been formed, is not a deterrent – it is a tip-off. Criminals do not surrender because of a media conference. They adapt. They go underground, destroy evidence, change their modus operandi, cover their tracks, change their method of operation, ditch cellphones and vehicles, intimidate witnesses, and relocate to another town or province to start all over again.
These premature spectacles fuel copycat criminality, spark widespread public panic, and open the floodgates for fake news, doctored videos and sensational social media posts. Fear travels faster than facts. Communities panic, vigilance turns into vigilantism, and investigators must waste time chasing rampant rumour as well as criminals.
The mainstream media and social media unfortunately are not insulated from inaccurate reporting and misleading information. It is so disheartening to see top ranking police officers who savour and enjoy each minute of the media conferences because no one asks them the hard and uncomfortable questions. For instance, do we have a national DNA database for all suspects and convicted criminals? I bet my last dollar, we do not.
The top brass of the police seems to be under the delusion that by holding a media conference is equivalent to solving the crime or to be seen to be doing something. One pities their subordinates who have to do their investigations under such public spotlight.
The self-promoting politicians make not well-thought-out placatory statements to pacify the public that is crying out for the capture of these perpetrators.
Before you speak of the return of the death penalty or no parole for rapists and the perpetrators of gender-based violence (GBV), how can you sentence or execute them if you can’t catch and arrest them?
Even when you have arrested them, how sure are you that they are going to be convicted if you have shoddy police investigations that tend to rely on faceless informers, poorly-collected evidence, poorly-drafted witness statements, police torture and excessive tactics to obtain confessions without independently verifiable, objective and corroborative evidence?
Ask hard working prosecutors of how many cases they could not take to court because of tempered with and polluted crime-scene evidence by politicians who suffer from verbal diarrhea in front of television cameras and in crime scenes they should not have been there in the first place.
The sad part is that gender-based violence and femicide happens every day everywhere and the police and justice system fail to ensure that it does not happen.
Unfortunately, it is all political posturing and self-promotion because of media coverage. Suddenly the self-promoting politicians with nothing positive to contribute are unleashing meaningless and incoherent public statements to placate the public crying for police action and tangible results in the apprehension and prosecution of these perpetrators.
Hopefully the Dawn Park murder case will not collapse while no effort is spared to solve the other nine cases and many more, without any politicians trying to impose, interface, immerse and ingratiate themselves in the process.
Once politicians get involved in police investigations, the results are disastrous and distasteful.
Public hysteria has never solved any crime. Sensible heads and deep police investigative work together with a helpful responsible public with solid leads and responsible media coverage as sources of information will help to get to the bottom of these cases.
Effective policing needs quiet, strategic, intelligence-driven work – not televised self-promotion that helps the guilty escape.
* Mbatha is a current affairs analyst
