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Date: April 30, 2024 Tue
Time: 2:53 am
Time: 2:53 am
Results for cattle theft
4 results foundAuthor: Mkutu, Kennedy Title: Policing the Periphery: Opportunities and Challenges for Kenya Police Reserves Summary: More than 80 per cent of Kenya consists of arid and semi-arid lands and across much of this area the main visible security force is not the police, but the Kenya Police reservists (KPRs). The Kenya Police Reserve (KPR) is an auxiliary force detached from the Kenya Police Service and is made up of volunteers operating within their own localities. KPRs are armed by the state to supplement the role of the police in providing security where police presence is low. They often guard pastoralist cattle kraals (enclosures) and move with cattle caravans to protect them against raids by other pastoral groups. Locals have mixed opinions as to the value of KPRs. For many they provide an important first response to insecurity in remote communities where there is heavy reliance on their local knowledge and ability to operate in harsh climates and over difficult terrain, and to provide security against resource-based conflicts and cattle raiding. A Turkana-based Catholic priest remarked: In urban areas they do the arrests and they are used by police on most missions. In some areas they act as spies for the police and General Service Unit. In the conflicts between Turkana and Merille and Turkana and Nyangatom they fight on the front line. They are acting as kraal scouts, animals scouts, [and] spies, and inform police patrol[s], but they are unpaid. For others they are a source of insecurity through firearms misuse, poor training and supervision, a lack of operational policy or governance, and an absence of any formal compensation mechanisms for any misdeeds they may commit or damage they may cause. This paper examines the various opportunities and challenges facing the KPRs in Kenya’s Turkana and Laikipia counties, and considers in particular the management and control of reservists’ firearms, given the wider problems of arms control and insecurity in Kenya’s peripheral areas. It seeks to relate the changing economic environment in rural parts of these counties to the evolving role of the KPRs. The paper highlights how each distinct context (Turkana with its natural resource economy and Laikipia with its conservation tourism industry) is adapting the KPRs’ traditional role. These new roles, as we shall see, are not always positive. Economic pressure, competition for resources (both natural and technical), weak or non-existent operational policy, a lack of oversight or governing structure, the attraction of secondary employment, and the constant flow of destabilizing small arms from neighbouring conflict zones are straining the KPR towards breaking point. Firearm misuse and criminal behaviour by KPRs are exacerbating tensions in Kenya’s remote rural regions. This paper will argue that without the immediate implementation of operational and small arms controls, the KPR risks evolving into armed militia groups. Details: Geneva, SWIT: Small Arms Survey, 2013. 86p. Source: Internet Resource: Working Paper 15: Accessed March 5, 2013 at: http://www.smallarmssurvey.org/fileadmin/docs/F-Working-papers/SAS-WP15-Kenya-Policing-the-Periphery.pdf Year: 2013 Country: Kenya URL: http://www.smallarmssurvey.org/fileadmin/docs/F-Working-papers/SAS-WP15-Kenya-Policing-the-Periphery.pdf Shelf Number: 127840 Keywords: Cattle RaidsCattle TheftFirearmsPolicing (Kenya)Weapons |
Author: Rafolatsane, Api Title: The Role of Police and Civil Society in Combatting Cross-Border Stock Theft Summary: Stock theft is a national crisis in, across and throughout Lesotho. This fact has led the Lesotho Mounted Police Service to place stock theft management under the serious crimes unit. In the mid-1990s stock theft reached epidemic proportions in the southern district adjoining the Eastern Cape Province of the Republic of South Africa. This problem still persists and has lately turned very violent and deadly in the Qachas'nek District. However, the Quthing district has seen a relative decrease in the rate of stock theft in the mid-2000s. The purpose of this study was to investigate the factors and strategies used in both Quthing and Qachas'nek districts to curb cross border stock theft. These factors and strategies are then compared to establish why cross-border stock theft is decreasing in Quthing while it escalates in Qachas'nek. The main finding of the research is that the Quthing community adopted the strategy of community policing and were trained on crime prevention while the opposite is true in the Qachas'nek district. A community policing strategy has not been adopted in Qachas'nek. It has also been established that training in community policing and crime prevention has to be offered to police officers and the members of crime prevention committee members. Lastly, the study revealed that laws governing stock theft have to be amended and the crime prevention committees should be better empowered. Details: Witwatersrand: University of the Witwatersrand, 2013. 106p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed July 11, 2016 at: https://core.ac.uk/download/files/979/39671842.pdf Year: 2013 Country: South Africa URL: https://core.ac.uk/download/files/979/39671842.pdf Shelf Number: 139575 Keywords: Cattle StealingCattle TheftCommunity Policing |
Author: New South Wales. Ministry of Justice Title: NSW Stock Theft and Trespass Review: Final Report Summary: This Review was announced by the Deputy Premier and Minister for Justice and Police on 25 February 2016 along with specific terms of reference. The scope of the Review - stock theft, rural trespass and illegal hunting - represents how intertwined these crime types are. Given this, a series of recommendations are proposed in this Report which address all three of these issues, as well as ensuring Police are appropriately structured, empowered and resourced for the particular challenges posed by rural crime. As Professor Elaine Barclay found in her 2014 Research into farm crime, while other types of crime are on a downward trend, rural crime is increasing and significantly underreported. It is also important to highlight that approximately 25% of NSW residents live outside Sydney, Newcastle and Wollongong. Stock theft, rural trespass and illegal hunting are crimes of major concern to rural and isolated communities. These crimes can lead to significant economic loss for primary producers and rural communities, with one incident potentially leading to tens or even hundreds of thousands of dollars in property theft and malicious damage, as well as the loss of future breeding potential. The impact of rural trespass and illegal hunting is also multiplied by opportunistic crimes which accompany these offences, such as firearm theft, diesel theft or animal cruelty. Recent reports, for example, suggest that more than 90% of stolen firearms in NSW being taken from rural areas. As many rural families live and work on the same property, such crimes can generate tremendous fear, as well as a sense of insecurity, and intimidation, due to being unable to control who is able to access their land. And police assistance, particularly in isolated communities, may be hours or even days away, especially if the nearest police station is not staffed 24 hours. The current Police response to crime in rural and remote communities was brought into question at every public consultation held over the course of the Review. It is apparent that the staffing of 24-hour stations is critical to the efficient policing of rural and remote areas right across NSW. Because of industrial agreements, police from smaller stations are routinely used to fill gaps in rosters at larger stations and officers in charge of stations are not appropriately empowered to determine the best policing response for their local communities. Such practices are starving rural communities of the police protection to which they are entitled. It is the opinion of this Review that addressing this issue should be the highest priority of the NSW Police Force. Hunting on private land using knives, dogs or bows continues to grow in popularity across NSW, perhaps fuelled in part by the lack of regulation of such activities, compared with the regulatory scheme in place for hunting with firearms. Often this hunting involves rural trespass. This lack of regulation does nothing to assist Police or the Department of Primary Industries to manage or control such behaviour. When rural crimes are prosecuted, the penalties issued are routinely far below both the maximum penalty and the quantum of the loss suffered by victims of such crime. Victims feel deep frustration that current penalties do not act as effective deterrents and suggest that magistrates and sometimes police officers do not appear to understand or appreciate the impact of such crimes. This Report will propose a number of recommendations aimed at addressing stock theft, rural trespass and illegal hunting. These include enhanced penalties for existing offences, an expansion of current regulatory requirements and significant changes to the way the NSW Police Force is currently structured to address rural crime. Key to addressing stock theft, rural trespass and illegal hunting is ensuring that police in rural and remote areas are engaged with their communities and are properly tasked and resourced to address these crimes. For a number of years, this does not appear to have been the case, most likely since police retreated to 'core business' and relinquished various extraneous duties undertaken on behalf of other government agencies which gave them regular contact with their communities. Current police transfer arrangements mean that police officers accept short-term postings to rural and remote areas, merely as a stepping stone to more desirable positions. Rural officers in non-24 hour stations are also often tasked outside their sectors and rural crime investigators are routinely tasked with jobs which have nothing to do with rural crime, such as child protection register visits. Police policies and structures also mean that if a call for assistance is received at night and/or to attend a remote location, police officers are supported by current policy in determining they should not attend alone, despite their possibly being the only police representative on duty in that sector. Whilst the intent behind this - to protect the safety of officers working in single units - is supported, consideration must also be given to the policing support made available to landowners dealing with trespassers and thieves, who may possibly be intoxicated and also armed. Although Police policies are intended to address both police and community safety, there is considerable confusion in relation to this area of policing, which was clearly expressed by stakeholders during the course of the Review. The content and findings of this Report reflect discussions with and submissions received from a range of different stakeholders, from government agencies, to industry bodies to residents of rural and remote communities. This Report is addressed to the Deputy Premier for his serious consideration. The recommendations made in the Report will, if implemented, greatly assist in empowering both police officers and victims of crime in addressing stock theft, rural trespass and illegal hunting. Details: Sydney: Ministry of Justice, 2016. 55p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed August 28, 2017 at: http://www.justice.nsw.gov.au/Documents/Media%20Releases/2017/final-report-NSW-stock-theft-and-trespass-review.pdf Year: 2016 Country: Australia URL: http://www.justice.nsw.gov.au/Documents/Media%20Releases/2017/final-report-NSW-stock-theft-and-trespass-review.pdf Shelf Number: 146923 Keywords: Cattle StealingCattle TheftIllegal HuntingRural Crime |
Author: Steinberg, Jonny Title: After the Commandos. The Future of Rural Policing in South Africa Summary: In February 2003, President Thabo Mbeki announced that the South African National Defence Force's (SANDF) Territorial Reserve, popularly known as the Commandos, would be phased out. This phasing out process is now well underway. By the end of 2009, the last of South Africa's 183 Commandos will have ceased operating, their rural crime prevention and borderline control functions taken over by the South African Police Service (SAPS). The task of this monograph is to assess the rural safety capacity that will be lost with the closing of the Commandos, and to discuss the manner in which the SAPS will replace that capacity. To this end, we conducted fieldwork in the three Commando jurisdictions: Ladybrand in the eastern Free State, De Mist in Eastern Cape, and West Rand and Gatsrand Commando areas in Gauteng. Commando strength is uneven. In Ladybrand, for instance, commercial farmers are actively involved in a number of grassroots security initiatives, primarily in defence of their commercial property, but the Commando is a marginal player in these initiatives. Moreover, the farming community is deeply divided over how the borderline with Lesotho ought to be policed, and, by proxy, over the role the Commando ought to play in borderline control. The De Mist Commando in Eastern Cape, by contrast, is highly organised, has a large active membership, and a clear and uncontested rural crime prevention programme. It is the dominant player in rural crime prevention; most police stations in its jurisdiction invest the lion's share of their resources in urban policing. In the West Rand, there is a strong identification between white farmers and the Commando, primarily as a result of the Commando's competence in policing agricultural crimes. We ask whether the Commandos are representative of rural South Africa, and argue that they are not; their function is primarily to protect the property and interests of the rural middle class. This is not necessarily illegitimate. Rural South Africa is deeply divided, by race, by inequality, and by a great deal of history. Asking a security agency to bridge these divides is asking too much; security agencies can neither mend souls nor conduct projects of social engineering. A more pertinent question to ask is whether the Commandos can make an effective contribution to policing agricultural crimes while not invading the privacy and violating the dignity of other rural constituencies. We argue that when deployed inappropriately, Commandos can indeed be destructive of social harmony and wellbeing, but that when deployed correctly they are both effective and benign. Finally, we argue that the policing of agricultural crimes, and of the rural sectors of small town police stations more generally, is likely to deteriorate after the closure of the Commandos. However, we do not pretend to offer easy solutions to the problem. The matter is by its nature a difficult one. All police services exercise discretion in deciding which aspects of policing to prioritise. In the SAPS, this discretion is exercised primarily at a national level. Area and station level managers are given quantifiable crime reduction and police action targets to meet. At present, the highest priority crimes in the SAPS are contact crimes, and are attached to an annual crime reduction target of seven percent. This is a normative, value-laden decision, and a commendable one at that. In small town police stations, however, the policing of rural sectors will suffer as a result. Many of these stations straddle a sharp divide between urban and rural areas. Most contact crimes are committed in urban sectors. If and when the capacity contained in the Commandos is transferred to the police, area and station level managers are bound to transfer much of this capacity from the rural sectors in which it is now deployed to urban sectors. Not to do so would be to respond irrationally to their own performance indicators. Prioritising the policing of, say, aggravated robbery over sheep theft is not just understandable but commendable. The SAPS should be aware though that there are places where its existing organisational incentives might, unless checked, result in situations where agricultural crimes are almost entirely unpoliced. Details: Pretoria: Institute for Security Studies, 2005. 62p. Source: Internet Resource: ISS Monograph Series, No. 120: Accessed April 4, 2018 at: https://issafrica.s3.amazonaws.com/site/uploads/120FULL.PDF Year: 2005 Country: South Africa URL: https://issafrica.s3.amazonaws.com/site/uploads/120FULL.PDF Shelf Number: 100558 Keywords: Agricultural CrimeCattle TheftRural AreasRural CrimeRural Policing |