CAPE TOWN: An “alarming” study of South African police accused of crimes has pointed to officers who rape, murder and bomb automatic bank tellers, a think-tank said on Monday. The South African Institute of Race Relations found 43 murders or attempted murders and 18 rapes while compiling a list of 100 incidents allegedly or confirmed to have been committed by police officers.

“The results were alarming,” said the 32-page report by the institute’s Unit for Risk Analysis.

The 100 crimes mostly took place between January 2009 and last April and exclude petty offences, poor service delivery or eliciting bribes.

“Without exception, the 100 incidents identified in this report are related to very serious and often violent and premeditated criminal behaviour,” said the report which mainly used media reports to source the crimes.

“These included ATM bombings, armed robberies, house robberies, rapes, murders, and serious assaults.” The institute warned that the crimes could be under-reported and showed that South Africa’s police criminality went beyond dirty cops.

“The police therefore face the problem not just of rooting out corrupt officers but also of identifying and eliminating criminals within their ranks,” it said.

The report warned that officers accused of serious crimes are not isolated incidents but fit into a “pattern of allegations that is common across the country”.

The report questioned how South Africa’s high violent crime rates, which include some 46 murders a day, could be fought when officers were alleged to be involved.

“This is obviously a rhetorical question and goes a long way to explain why poor communities often settle for vigilantism while wealthier communities are today protected by phalanxes of armed guards,” it said.

With a murder rate eight times higher than that of  the United States, the study said local police are exposed to brutal and gratuitous violence and recommends post traumatic stress disorder as a policy intervention.

“It would not be surprising to learn that their own violent behaviour may first and foremost be a product of the very violent world that they inhabit.”

In 2008 to 2009, 2,134 incidents were reported to the Independent Complaints Directorate with a 1.78 per cent conviction rate, said the report.—AFP