Parliament’s Portfolio Committee on Police believes the announcement by President Jacob Zuma that two new specialised units dealing with narcotics and illegal fire-arms are being established will contribute to making the police service more professional and effective. “There is no substitute for highly-trained and skilled personnel who specialises. There is an appropriate response needed for changing crime trends‚” said committee chairperson Francois Beukman.He added that South Africa needed to focus on cross-border and international crime-syndicates and that the capability to be effective in this field required specialisation.“We believe that the best of the best in SAPS and DPCI and other agencies should be recruited for these two units.”However‚ Beukman said that for the two new units to be successful‚ seven essential factors needed to be taken into account‚ namely: • Experienced and well-trained unit commanders with expertise police knowledge; • The necessary budget allocation (within the ring-fenced DPCI-budget);• Special vetting and integrity-testing procedures on a constant basis for all unit-members; • Utilisation of international best practice in training and investigation-protocols;• Appropriate IT and technology capability; • Sufficient international inter-agency cooperation; and • State-of the art equipment and forensic facilities.Beukman said the committee would monitor whether these seven essential factors were part and parcel of the development framework of the two new units and would invite the Minister and the DPCI to brief the committee on this important development in the coming weeks in order to evaluate the preparations for the establishment of the units...