Abstract
The South African Police Service (SAPS) is finding it increasingly difficult to protect victims from the scourge of commercial crime which threatens the economy, corrodes scarce and valuable resources, and inhibits growth and development. Official statistics from the SAPS show that the annual detection rate in respect of reported fraud cases was 35.77% in 2014/15 and 34.08% in 2015/16. Although the detection rate for serious commercial crime for 2014/15 is reported as 94.8% and 96.75% for 2015/16, it is likely that these figures are inaccurate and in reality are much lower. This article provides an overview of the incidence of commercial crime, assesses the detection rate reported by the SAPS and seeks to determine whether they are losing the fight against these crimes.
Highlights
Commercial crime is under-reported, and the limitations of official statistics remain a challenge
In 2016 a new national head, Commercial Crime was appointed outside of the Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation (DPCI) and a Commercial Crime Unit under the control of the divisional commissioner, Detective Service was re-established, going back to the situation prior to the inclusion of the former Commercial Branch in the DPCI in 2009.10 It is envisaged that the Commercial Crime Unit will investigate commercial crime cases not investigated by the DPCI, but which are too complex for investigation at station level
Despite limited successes achieved by law enforcement in combatting commercial crime, serious concerns exist over the lack of data available in the public domain to assess the performance of the South African Police Service (SAPS) in this regard, as well as the accuracy and trustworthiness of the serious commercial crime detection rate in particular
Summary
The South African Police Service (SAPS) struggles to protect victims from commercial crime that threatens the economy, corrodes scarce and valuable resources, and inhibits growth and development. Official SAPS statistics show that the annual detection rate in respect of reported fraud cases was 35.77% in 2014/15 and 34.08% in 2015/16. The detection rates for serious commercial crime are reported as 94.8% for 2014/15 and 96.75% for 2015/16, it is likely that these figures are inaccurate and, in reality, much lower. This article provides an overview of the reported incidence of commercial crime, assesses the detection rate reported by the SAPS, and seeks to determine how it can be improved. Commercial crime is under-reported, and the limitations of official statistics remain a challenge. This article reviews the data on commercial crime in South Africa, assesses its detection by police, and considers how it can be better tackled
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