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CSIR, SA Police sign cooperation agreement

Riah Phiyega and Sibusiso Sibisi

Riah Phiyega and Sibusiso Sibisi

18th February 2014

By: Keith Campbell

Creamer Media Senior Deputy Editor

  

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The Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) and the South African Police Service (SAPS) signed a memorandum of agreement on Tuesday to provide the police with scientific, technological and other specialist expertise to help fight crime and improve public safety. This is the latest step in the cooperation between the two agencies, which goes back ten or more years.

"The CSIR, being a public institution, leads us to conduct research ... to advance the wellbeing of the people of South Africa," explained CSIR CEO Dr Sibusiso Sibisi. He noted that improving public safety and security was part of his organisation's mandate.

"I'm very pleased to be here today," affirmed National Police Commissioner General Riah Phiyega. "We want to make sure we achieve smarter interoperability of the wonderful systems we have. A synergised collective effort is needed for us to achieve a safe South Africa. The CSIR is one of the partners that we need. I hope that this new partnership will ... add value in our fight against crime."

The agreement covers research and technology support programmes in six specific areas. These are: command, control and shared situational awareness, information and communications technologies (ICT), integration and interoperability support, operational quick reaction missions, science and technology capability development and strategic and operational decision support.

Phiyega described the agreement as an important step in the transformation of the SAPS. The service, she highlighted, sought to become more agile, to respond more rapidly to the needs of the people and to contribute to the wellbeing of South Africans. She noted how the country's opening up after 1994 had made it more vulnerable to organised crime and cyber crime. (The SAPS has a cyber crime unit, part of Crime Intelligence.) The cooperation with the CSIR offered access to smart technology, smart planning, and "ultimately, smart policing".

The agreement with the CSIR would also enhance the management capabilities of the police, including tender management and project management. The science council would also provide independent and unbiased evaluation of technologies that the SAPS was considering buying, ranging all the way from ICT systems to protected vehicles.

"We ... are well positioned to be a smart adviser, to enable the police service to be smart buyers of technologies, while avoiding vendor lock-in," highlighted Sibisi. In addition, the CSIR would assist in the aggregating and interpretation of data. The final objective of such data analysis would be to permit "quicker, better, smarter decisions".

"There will also be ongoing development of technologies, informed by the specific needs of the SAPS," he stated. "We envisage a very close working relationship. We're going to work together in a very tight manner. Let's get on with it!"

Edited by Creamer Media Reporter

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