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Some stats on police killings in South Africa for last year
Every year the statistics released by police on the number of police officers who die in the line of duty tell a story of the unacceptably high crime levels in South Africa.
Appropriately themed "Stop police killings" 2008 annual police day, held in KwaZulu-Natal two weeks ago, was dedicated to highlighting the high prevalence of police murders.
The number of attacks on members of the SAPS last year were 769, a decrease from the previous year which had 1 274 incidents.
However the number of members murdered in 2007 increased by 13,7 percent from the previous year. A total of 108 police officers were murdered last year in South Africa.
KwaZulu-Natal had the second-highest number of attacks on police officers and murders with 115 and 32 respectively.
An analysis of the attacks on police officers shows that most policemen are attacked while they are in pursuit of suspects, on the point of arresting suspects or during the course of making arrest.
According to the SAPS, there is no evidence to support the motive that police officers are mainly killed for their firearms or that there is a relationship between police corruption and the murder of policemen.
Although most police officers are attacked while they are on duty, an analysis of those attacks during which police officers are killed indicates that most police officers are murdered while they are off-duty.
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