By: Rodney Pienaar
Safety and security minister Charles Namoloh has said that there is currently no law in place that prohibits members of the public from taking photos of police officers that are executing their duties.
He said officers should be reported if they assault members of the public for taking photos.
Some of crimes need further investigations and members of public should be cautious when they are taking photos or videos, he said.
“However, some scenes of crime may require further investigations and filming and publishing of such scenes of crime may defeat the purpose of the investigation as there maybe unknown subjects of investigation who may be alerted by such publications and in some cases such filming may lead to the contamination of the scene of crime.”
“When any allegation or concern about the police or its personnel are brought to our attention, they are assessed and investigated to determine the merits thereof. Depending on the merits of each allegation, criminal or departmental cases are opened and referred to either the prosecutor general’s office for a decision or the police internal investigations directorate for departmental hearings. I should however, point out that for reason of possible unnecessary cost involved the ministry does not rely on media reports to investigate cases of police brutality,” he said.
Namoloh also said that if an officer is found guilty of misconduct the presiding officer after compliance with regulation 17 may caution or reprimand the officer.
