When police officers become criminals

When I was growing up, my mother taught me that whenever I felt unsafe anywhere in the world, I should walk into a police station and seek help.

She inculcated the belief in me that police stations are a refuge and police officers the most trustworthy people in the world.

I understood this principle when, many years ago, my mother walked into a police station in the Johannesburg central business district with my younger brother in tow, seeking assistance to be driven back to Soweto, where we lived.

She did not have taxi fare to return home after having gone to town to meet my younger brother’s father, who did not show up.

He had committed to giving her resources to return home, so, his failure to arrive in town meant she had no means to pay for a taxi.

And so, believing that only the police would help her, she walked into a police station and requested help.

Indeed, police officers did bring her home when a vehicle became available.

That experience deepened my belief that whenever I found myself feeling unsafe, I could rely on the men in blue — that they would always help.

Over the years, many incidents involving police officers have shaken my belief in what my late mother taught me.

I know of far too many incidents involving law enforcement officers, and far too many incidents in which police stations became crime scenes, for me to continue to hold on to this belief.

Just a month ago, a 26-year-old woman was allegedly raped by a police officer at the Mfuleni police station.

Reports indicate that the woman was in custody on charges of assault when the rape took place.

This was not the first time that such an incident had taken place in a police station.

In fact, through the years, the Institute for Race Relations has been publishing the “Broken Blue Line” report which looks into crimes committed by police officers.

The findings in several reports indicate that police officers have been involved in crimes such as murders, kidnappings and sexual assaults including rape.

Some of these crimes have taken place inside police stations.

This past Saturday, 22-year-old Chesnay Patricia Keppler was laid to rest in Eldorado Park, Gauteng.

She had been shot dead allegedly by her boyfriend, a member of the SA Police Service, just days earlier.

The man, identified as Mandla Buthelezi, allegedly used his service pistol to commit the murder.

The young woman reportedly ran to her home after being engaged in a dispute with Buthelezi, but he allegedly followed her and fired seven shots at her through a window.

With this, a young woman who had just started serving as a crime warden in the province lost her life, leaving her family and loved ones devastated.

Buthelezi later turned the gun on himself in an attempt to commit suicide.

This attempt failed, and he was hospitalised and then placed in police custody.

He appeared in court on Monday, just two days after the grief-stricken Eldorado Park community laid Keppler to rest.

The brutal murder of Keppler allegedly at the hands of a police officer is a stark reminder that the men in blue are not always the protectors who my mother made me believe they were.

And this is a painful reality for me to deal with — made even more so by the realisation that criminality in the police force is not isolated.

It has become a systemic issue and must be treated as such.