IPID is overburdened due to limited number of investigators

JOHANNESBURG  - Police watchdog – the Independent Police Investigative Directorate (IPID) – says each of its investigators is assigned about 300 cases a year, making its job of oversight tough.

The directorate recently released its latest annual report.

The report covers the period between 1 April 2023 and 31 March 2024.

IPID has 167 investigators on its books, spread across the country.

While they were able to complete investigations into 4,667 cases in the financial year under review - they still have a backlog of over 15,000 cases.

The limited capacity has also seen IPID's investigators only able to attend 24% of crime scenes within the first 24 hours of a matter being reported. 

IPID’s spokesperson Lizzy Suping: “We do have a very limited number of investigators. We have strategies in place to try and beef up our investigation capacity. We also try to repurpose some of the support functions, for example, when a post becomes vacant in a support services - some of them are then repurposed and converted into investigation positions. Obviously, we have to follow due processes with the DPSA [Department of Public Service and Administration].”

Suping says budget constraints hamstrung IPID's ability to provide effective oversight on the country's over 200,000 law enforcement officers.