Police must be a step ahead: minister

Police need to be one step ahead of criminals to catch them before they commit crimes, Police Minister Nathi Mthethwa said on Thursday.

"This is possible if we have an effective crime intelligence capacity to thwart their intentions before they can even implement them," he said in a speech prepared for delivery at a summit on transnational crime in Geneva, Switzerland.

"Fundamental in all our activities is the ability to be ahead of criminals."

The mobilisation of communities was needed for this.

"In order to carry out this extremely complicated and difficult task, the maximum mobilisation of the people is not a luxury but a critical necessity.

"The success in the war against crime depends on ordinary citizens playing their part."

Mthethwa said countries also needed to find ways of exchanging notes on the latest crime patterns to develop ways of better co-ordination. "Multilateral institutions like Interpol need to be strengthened and all the time be kept pure from any criminal intent," he said.

"We need to develop capacity to use the latest technology if we want to deal with cybercrime effectively."

He said crime went beyond borders through syndicates "that have made the entire globe the theatre of their operations".

The drug trade continued to grow in most parts of the world, and global abuse and drug accessibility had become increasingly complex, said Mthethwa.

Trafficking routes had become shorter, more diverse and more easily traversed.

"The urgent need to fight criminality is the major factor necessitating international solidarity," he said.

"We must meet the challenge posed by criminality by stepping up co-operation bilaterally and at the international level in the interest of social progress."