decisionJanuary 2022E000065
EMPD criminal record vetting — 3,762 members, 275 flagged
EMPD collected fingerprints from all 3,762 members for criminal record verification. Results showed 275 members with illicit activity and 100 convicted of serious crimes including murder and rape. The process was halted after 2022 due to internal pushback.
Described by 2 witnesses
Each of these people gave first-hand evidence about this event. Several accounts of the same event is a property of the record — it is not verification, and witnesses can be mistaken together.
29 claims from testimony
"it was then agreed that we will initiate the process where we will at least take all the members’ fingerprints, submit it on a manual process to the South African Police Service and that they will then verify the criminal records at a once off basis to us"
"the annual vetting process shall start on the 1st of January 2022"
"the decision was made that this annual vetting shall be instituted"
"during this process each Divisional Head shall be responsible to ensure that all employees in their respective divisions’ fingerprints be taken"
"This is 2021, December 2021"
"this process was supposed to conclude in February 22"
"Starting from the date from 2022."
"This is an Excell spreadsheet containing all the employees of Ekurhuleni Metro Police in 2022"
"that was used to capture the results of the criminal record vetting"
"Everything covered in green is when no illicit activity was recorded and that is a total of 3,174 people"
"a group of illicit activity in a dark red, which is 275 officers that have illicit activity recorded"
"It is 100."
"murder, rape and fraud"
"murder, rape and fraud"
"murder, rape and fraud"
"contained some Crime Intelligence procurement documents using secret funds of Crime Intelligence and vetting documents"
"although vetting is mentioned, it is in a different context"
"I know I mentioned vetting in here"
"as required by section 17(e)(2) of the South African Police Service Act"
"It does not appropriately vet applicants for criminal records."
"you raise a concern about vetting"
"you seek vetting for your members"
"even in the SAPS itself, it seems to be a big problem that the vettings were not happening as they should"
"They do not have sufficient capacity to do the vetting"
"is it just for new intakes when you say you have so many people that have not been vetted?"
"are you talking about regular random vetting as well of employees over periods?"
"The second point that you make relates to essentially the re -vetting or the reassessment of incumbents, it is paragraph 61."
"public trust is built when the people doing the vetting are independent and are transparently appointed, and that they are outside of the institutions which are being vetted"
"in every case where there is serious criminal penetration, states have adopted this particular process of vetting or certification"