Two comparisons - you decide

Here are two articals written on Policing and crime in South Africa (where they recently , reluctantly released the latest crime figures) and in Queensland where the same happened yesterday. These are pretty long discussions, so I am only going to publish parts of the one, but they can both be read at the following web addresses:

http://www.news24.com/Content/MyNews24/YourStory/1162/80243497227442f2b9496dbbc85fd85b/24-09-2009-11-00/My_castle,_my_prison

http://www.news.com.au/couriermail/story/0,23739,26125310-952,00.html

Here are some exerpts, note that the police are really worried that there have been 54 homicides in Queensland in the last year (South Africa has 50 A DAY)!!

Queensland
A MASSIVE drop in car thefts and break and enter offences is proof that Queensland has a fine police force, says Police Commission Bob Atkinson.
And you only have to look at the rates of car thefts and break and enters to know that this department is doing a good job."
In the past eight years, reports of unlawful use of motor vehicles in Queensland have tumbled from 20,634 to 9607.
Police statistics also show reports of unlawful entry have sliced from 77,165 to 45,088.
Homicide cases have dropped from 62 to 54 in the same period despite the state's population increasing by almost 18 per cent.
"Some crime goes unreported but just about everyone reports a stolen car so that's a good barometer for us," Mr Atkinson said.
"And it comes at a time when car ownership is still increasing to the point that we have about four million cars in Queensland.
"These are really good results and I have absolute confidence in this organisation."


South Africa

Why do we find ourselves in this precarious position? The inability of the state to protect us is not a matter of funds or the lack of funds. The budget for safety and security have increased from R17bn in 2000 to R 47bn in 2008. In addition to the state expenditure, we saw massive growth in revenues, of the private security sector, a result of additional expenditure by private citizens in a desperate attempt to buy peace of mind, from R2bn spent in 1995 to R18bn in 2004 and R35bn spent in 2008. Contributors to the “Enforced Security Fund” are however not allowed to complain about the high crime rate and those audacious enough to complain are quickly told, by the leeches, to either shut up or ship out to Australia.
Despite a huge increase in policeman, from 130 000 in 2000 to 170 000 in 2008, crime levels remain unacceptably high. In addition to the policeman employed to protect us, in our houses and businesses, we are employing 300 000 security guards and support staff, up from 190 000 in 1995, to protect us. The growth in private security expenditure and personnel amounts to the government abdicating it’s responsibilities in guaranteeing the security of its citizens, a basic human right guaranteed by the constitution. Unfortunately the skills and quality, of police and security guards, did not increase with the numbers. The only increases other than numbers were girth and salary, resulting in the taxpayer paying more for less.
The real reason, for our inability to get to grips with the crime problem, lies in a lack of leadership, poor management, incompetence and lack of basic policing skills. Leadership in government and the department of safety has been, and still is, lacking vision, imagination and commitment. Leaders have been ill-equipped with their focus on the interests of the party, self-interest and ideology, rather than results and a safe society. Denial and deceit has been a trademark of the leadership with successive police commissioners being political appointments, without the faintest idea of the requirements of an effective police force and with their only loyalty to their political masters.
Managers have proved to be corrupt and incompetent. Discipline in the force is non-existent, borne out by the number of obese police officers. Nepotism and cronyism is rife, a fact borne out by the ratio of constables to sergeants. Constables, in 2007, constituted less than 10% of the police force, resulting in a ratio of one constable for every four sergeants, this, compared to five constables per sergeant in Britain; a clear case of too many chiefs and to few Indians Affirmative action resulted in a severe loss of skills.

Read the rest at the sites mentioned above....