Ministry says Police hopelessly overloaded

DETECTIVES at the Windhoek Police Station each had to investigate an average of 971 crimes in 2007-08.

This startling statistic forms part of the Government’s Accountability Report for this financial year, released by Finance Minister Saara Kuugongelwa-Amadhila.Their heavy workload caused the Police to miss their national target for combating crime during year, the Ministry says. The Windhoek Police Station alone had to investigate more than 33 000 crimes which were newly reported and brought forward from the previous year. For this they only had 34 detectives, who in addition had to pay attention to the inquest dockets and cases that are floating to and from the court for further investigation.Reported crime in Namibia shot up by six per cent in 2007-08 and resulted in the Police missing their target of clearing serious crime cases during the year by five per cent, the report states.The Police solved only 36 per cent of cases, five per cent less that the previous year, clearing 71 313 cases out of more than 196 000.In the process, 30 442 suspects were arrested, according to the report. Of these, 1 015 were youths. That is nearly 16 per cent more than 2006-07, according to the latest Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF).The Police conducted successful drug busts worth on average N$360 000 every month.Some 184 unpolished diamonds with a street value of nearly N$2,5 million were confiscated. Of this, N$155 000 has already been paid over to the State. The Police detected investigated 19 cases on protected resources and arrested 26 Namibians, one South African, three Zimbabweans and two Angolans. During this period, the Police also detected 6 636 concealed crimes.A total of 191 commercial crimes were reported and the Police arrested 82 suspects, of whom 16 were convicted. Six high-profile cases, involving more than N$150 million, are still in the hands of the Police and the judiciary.The number of motor vehicle theft cases reported in Windhoek in 2007-08 dropped from 550 the previous year to 474. The Police managed to clear 356 car theft cases.Five firearms were either lost or stolen from Police stations, while 416 prisoners escaped from custody. The Police received nearly N$1,4 billion to continue their battle against crime this year, only about eight per cent more than the previous financial year. jo-mare@namibian.com.na