The Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Police said on Thursday that lack of consequences for those within the South African Police Service (Saps) ranks is eroding the “non-existent trust” between the police and the communities they serve.

The committee learnt through a Saps briefing that during the entire first quarter, the police did not initiate any internal disciplinary case against any of those in the service against whom allegations of corruption were made.

“In a country that suffers greatly from the scourge of corruption, especially the perception that some members of the Saps are implicated in criminal conduct, the inability to institute any disciplinary hearings for the first quarter as it relates to corruption allegations further erodes the trust levels in the Saps,” said committee chairperson Ian Cameron.

The reason given for the lack of action was “delays in appointing functionaries", which Cameron said was unacceptable.

The Police Committee also raised concerns that the Saps only installed closed-circuit television systems on one site against the planned 15 sites for the quarter.

“During consideration of the Saps’ annual performance plan and strategic plan, the Saps highlighted its intention to use information technology as a force multiplier, but this underperformance undermines this drive and shows a lack of commitment to fight crime using technological advances,” said Cameron.

He also expressed concern that the Saps was underperforming in relation to the percentage of reported incidents of contact crimes against women and children.

He said Saps reducing contact crime incidents against women by 4.1%, instead of the planned target of 25%, as well as an increase of 1.8% in crimes against children, showed Saps’ apparent failure to protect the most vulnerable.

“The committee has previously raised concerns about the Saps’ apathy towards alternative interventions to crime fighting. The 0% expenditure on biological assets, such as the dog and mounted units, highlights its lack of commitment to adopt comprehensive interventions to combat crime. The committee reaffirms its call that units such as the K9 unit are critical to fight emerging crime trends such as narcotics,” Cameron said.

The committee also raised concerns that the detective service only achieved 40% of its targets.

While the committee acknowledged that the underachievement was rooted in the high docket-to-detective ratio, it said it was concerning in the context of the critical investigation element in combating crime.

The committee has called on the Saps to improve performance on all set targets.