Former members of the South African Police Service (SAPS) have been responding in droves to an opportunity to re-inlist‚ according to SAPS management. '“This rare window of opportunity for former members is part of management’s plan to capacitate the ranks of the police with highly experienced detectives and former members of visible policing as we are striving to improve the service levels at the coalface‚” police spokesman Brigadier Vishnu Naidoo said on Sunday. He said in the two months up to the closing date of June 15‚ 2‚800 applications had been received nationally from former police officers. Of these‚ about 1‚000 were from former detectives.“From these applications the SAPS aims to appoint former constables‚ sergeants‚ warrant officers and lieutenants to posts in the Detective Service and Visible Policing divisions‚ the two environments within the SAPS that need capacitation. As things stand‚ the applications are being considered‚ based on the requirements listed in the advertisement.”One of the stipulations was that applicants should not have left the service while a disciplinary matter was pending against them. The National Commissioner‚ General Riah Phiyega‚ was clear on this. She said: “Those with criminal records will not be considered at all. We will not compromise quality for quantity. Only those with a commendable track record of good performance and a clean disciplinary record will be re-enlisted.”Brigadier Naidoo said that former members would be properly vetted and have their fingerprints checked to ensure that none of them had criminal records. Re-enlistment Boards would be convened in the provinces with representation from Head Office to consider all applications and make final recommendations to the Human Resources Committee for consideration.“The National Commissioner has also tasked the Internal Audit component to check the entire process to ensure that it is fair and objective. The plan is to finalise the process by the end of November 2015.“Furthermore‚ it is a fact that many Government departments lost sizable numbers of employees as a result of confusion about pension fund benefits. SAPS was also affected. Despite this‚ our attrition rate for 2014 was 3.5% of our workforce‚ well below the normal 4.5% to 5%‚” Brig Naidoo added. “There is therefore nothing sinister or untoward about the loss of members in the SAPS since all government departments and private companies lose employees yearly for various reasons. In the previous media coverage of the re-enlistment‚ a wrong perception was created‚ which seemed to suggest that the number of members who left the service has tripled‚ but this was not the case.”..