While Gauteng cops were the best performing when it comes to the average response times from police to calls to 10111 call centres, the data has raised questions about how incidents are prioritised.
DA MP Okkie Terblanche, who is a member of the portfolio committee on police, had asked Police Minister Bheki Cele for the average response time for SAPS first responders to calls emanating from 10111 calls and dispatch centres in each province.
In reply, Cele said the average response times with police stations linked to 10111 command centres were broken down into three complaint categories: Alpha, Bravo and Charlie.
Policing consultant with the Institute for Security Studies (ISS), David Bruce, said Alpha complaints are deemed very urgent, Charlie complaints are the least urgent and Bravo complaints somewhere in between.
Gauteng had the best response times out of all the provinces at 11.56 minutes when responding to Alpha complaints, 12.38 for Bravo complaints and 12.26 for Charlie complaints.
In KZN, the Alpha response time averages 21.44 minutes while for Bravo it is 21.51 minutes, with Charlie at 24.20.
The Western Cape had response times ranging from 17.57 minutes for Alpha, 20.18 for Bravo and 19.02 for Charlie.
Limpopo also had response times under 20 minutes for all categories while Mpumalanga averaged around 23 minutes with Bravo complaints at 28 minutes. The Free State averaged between 28 and 36 minutes.
The rest of the provinces had response times that were over half an hour with the longest times being in the Northern Cape with more than half an hour for all categories.
Bruce said at face value this data showed the time that it takes from receiving the call to arriving at the scene of the incident.
“I find the data puzzling and even go so far as to say that it doesn’t make much sense,” he said.
He said the average response time for Alpha complaints should be much faster than for Charlie complaints.
“However the data appears to show that there is virtually no difference between the the fastest responses (Alpha) and the slowest responses (Charlie),” said Bruce.
Bruce said in the Free State the average response times for low urgency Charlie complaints were faster than for very urgent Alpha complaints.
“In the Free State they are reporting that the average response time for a low urgency Charlie complaint (28.30) is 1 minute and 30 seconds faster than a top priority Alpha complaint (29.59).
“It also indicates that they on average take 7 minutes and 45 less to respond to a Charlie (28 minutes and 30 seconds) complaint than to a Bravo complaint (36 minutes and 14 seconds),” he said.
He said according to the data the average response time in KZN for Charlie complaints is only 7 seconds less than for Alpha complaints.
In Gauteng, it is only 30 seconds less; in Limpopo it is less than a minute; in the Western Cape and Northern Cape less than two minutes and in the Eastern Cape less than three minutes.
Blessed Gwala, IFP KZN provincial spokesperson for Community Safety and Liaison, said the party was sceptical about the data.
“What has been announced by the National Minister of Police, Bheki Cele, is not a true reflection of what ordinary citizens are experiencing when reporting crime through 10111,” he said.
Gwala said given the high crime rate in the country, the dysfunction of the 10111 emergency number was a grave and potentially catastrophic situation.
“Reporting crime is important for accurate crime stats. This gives the SAPS more leverage to request extra police officers, vehicles etc. But with the dysfunction of 10111 it makes it impossible for people to report crime on time,” he said.
Terblanche said 10111 centres were aimed at ensuring the public could contact the police in cases of emergencies and to get a quick response time which may be the difference between life and death.
“The response times are not nearly satisfactory,” he said, adding that quite often the police do not answer calls at all.
The Mercury