National Commissioner of Police, General Riah Phiyega;
All SAPS Deputy National Commissioners;
All SAPS Provincial Commissioners;
All SAPS Divisional Commissioners;
Representatives from Research and Academic fraternity present;
Representatives from Community Policing Forums present;
Representatives from POPCRU;
Representatives from SAPU;
Distinguished guests;
Members of the media;
Ladies and gentlemen;
Crime is a global phenomenon, a scourge that respects no borders and affects all nations. In dealing with crime in South Africa, we are confronted with this serious and violent nature of crime.
Despite this challenge, a lot of progress in the fight against crime has been noted in the past four years. This progress, to a large extent can be attributed to our multi-disciplinary approach in dealing with crime.
As the police leadership and management we convened the Summit on Suicide Prevention for the South African Police Service (SAPS) for the next three days (15 – 17 October 2013), because whilst killing of police officers is a matter that has received attention, we however now have to tackle police suicides.
Whilst a lot has been done in terms of a preventative approach, we then decided that a multi-faceted approach is needed in this regard in order for internal and external role-players to critically address these challenges.
We are encouraged by the presence of some of the leading academics, experts and researchers in this room. We urge you to scientifically probe this worrying phenomenon, not in silos but as a collective. Through your intervention and analysis, we can begin to tackle this challenge.
Police officers and staff, yours is a heavy responsibility. When citizens and their public representatives disagree on the rate of service delivery, one or both parties call on us to intervene, and we end up at the centre of the dispute, engaged in running battles with our communities and, taking the blame for the sins we did or did not dot commit.
When heartless criminals abuse young kids, when rapists rape elderly 90 year old grandmothers, when dysfunctional families see criminality as normal, when unfettered greed and other social ills become the breeding ground for crime – instead of focusing on the underlying factors, often times police get the blame, while the preventive capacity lies with the rest of society.
When horrible road accidents happen and many innocent lives are lost, in most cases as a result of negligent and reckless drivers, police have to cordon off such gory scenes. Some of the scenes are so gory we cannot even start describing them here. Yet again, police are called and have to manage these situations.
Have we, as society reflected on some of these situations and what impact they would have on the police? Have we appreciated the difficult conditions under which these men and women in blue go through? In many instances they are not emotionally and psychologically equipped to handle those stressful situations which frequently lead to catastrophic impact on their mental wellness with unfortunate outcomes.
Police officials deal with high job and task demands on a daily basis. In some of these tasks police officials must absorb many emotions from the community ranging from anger, frustration, sadness and many more. The police officials are also exposed to negative media reporting and criticism from the community as well as socio economic and political dynamics within the same community.
We need to highlight the reality that, when the police officers go off duty, they become part of the very same community they were policing a few hours earlier. Arguably, this has potential to elevate some of the stress levels and tensions and we have ample evidence of such cases, where some of the officers are even insulted and threatened.
As part of the intervention, the SAPS has one of the most extended and advanced trauma management systems compared to other government departments, policing agencies, nationally and internationally. After developing the model, a study was conducted to validate the effectiveness of the model and it showed that ours is more comprehensive. The trauma management is governed by policies and different interventions for application on different levels and situations. It is also designed to be applied in a pro-active and reactive manner.
Police officials experience mostly anger, hopelessness, frustration and helplessness after trauma (which is a negative emotion). We should realise that trauma reactions do not manifest in emotions only but also physically, behaviourally and cognitively.
Our figures indicate that in the year 2009, the SAPS lost 73 officers due to suicide, in 2010 the figure increased to 97. In 2011 there were 85 cases and in 2012, the figure was 98. From 1 January to June 30 2013 the figure stands at 34. This is a very bleak picture to say the least and hence it requires this multi-faceted approach.
Our analysis indicates that the trends in the commission of such suicides include utilising a service firearm, hanging and overdose by tablets. Predominantly we also discovered that tensions in personal relationships, marital problems, infidelity, trauma, depression and mental health issues, poor financial management are the main drivers.
Members are urged to pro-actively take responsibility for their personal health and wellness. Commanders are also urged to pro-actively pay attention to the wellbeing of their members.
Through the wellness programmes we have various specialists who focus on empowering SAPS members through various interventions including education, information and continuous communication on understanding of trauma and its management, anger management, suicide awareness, substance abuse, domestic violence, relationship enrichment, financial management and so on.
These services including counselling and support services are voluntary. Because we have professionals well equipped with these services, we need guidance from them on whether the voluntary nature should continue or is helpful?
Police officers have over a period of time developed coping mechanisms/strategies in dealing with their continuous exposure to traumatic events that most often lead to serious injury and death.
However some of these coping mechanisms are sometimes maladaptive thus leading to ill-health, poor or skewed judgment and behaviour that might be harmful to them and those around them. A consistent message which we continue to articulate is to urge them to utilise these freely-available resources.
Some unfortunately, have conformed to unfounded and unscientific perceptions that seeking counselling is considered a sign of weakness. This perception is untrue and misleading. Members and families need to know that trauma by its nature is cumulative; it does not simply go away. Seek professional help.
We have raised a few of these interventions however we realise that more still needs to be done, hence the convening of this important Summit. We recognise that police are often exposed to interpersonal relationships outside the workplace, which management have no control over. This is where we urge families and society in general to play their part.
On this score, we would like to utilise this occasion to caution some leaders of some political parties to refrain from peddling negative sentiments against police officers, because by so doing they are discouraging police and in fact, giving criminals more room to disrespect our officers.
We need inspirational leaders who understand that no matter what, policing cannot be politicised. We need leadership that can inspire our men and women in blue to work hard. Our officers therefore need all the support they can get.
This said, we are not saying police officers are immune to criticism or that those officers who find themselves on the wrong side of the law, should be protected. We all have a duty and a mandate to expose those who taint the good image of SAPS. Equally, where the majority of our officers serve with excellence, they need to be commended.
As we conclude, we urge you as delegates to deliberate, discuss and at the end of the three days, to come up with progressive and effective outcomes from this Summit. We must guard against turning such an important platform into a talk-show but a gathering which must produce tangible outcomes that will benefit this nation and generations to come.
We are hopeful that the Summit will help us reduce and prevent suicides within the police fraternity. I declare this Summit officially opened.
I thank you.
