Cross, sad, deeply disappointed, frustrated — this is how retired career policewoman Sharon Schütte feels about domestic violence in SA.
Schütte, who retired from the SAPS in 2012 as a major-general and head of the Family Violence, Child Protection and Sexual Offences Unit, was a founding member of the first all-women rape unit based at the old Pretoria Murder and Robbery Unit in 1988.
The unit was part of a specialised project study monitored by the Human Sciences and Research Council to look at what was happening in the field, and to study related issues such as secondary victimisation.
“Back in those days, women who were raped had to go to the mortuary for their physical examination. So we worked to rather have a special facility set up for that at the Steve Biko Hospital,” Schütte said.
She was sent to London for two years of special training at the Metropolitan Police Training School in Hendon. There she learned the best ways to take a proper statement, how to get the most information possible in an interview, how to investigate and how to train first responders.
The team returned to SA with the acquired knowledge, tasked with introducing the necessary changes here.
“We did all that back then. We started special training in the police, and we introduced care packages for victims, because when you take their underwear for evidence, you need to give them something back,” said Schütte.
“All that was put in place before 1994. Now we are in 2022 and when I hear stories about how it’s all failing I want to explode,” she said.
“It shouldn’t be like this, and it’s concerning. I have always thought of the measure of the police being how I feel walking into a police station. And that is not the same everywhere. Some are good, but some are bad and it shouldn’t be like that.”
Schütte is dismayed to see how few strides have been made in improving police service overall and how issues she tackled decades ago continue to be raised as challenges.
“Where is the command and control at every client service centre? My concern is that I didn’t leave a legacy. When you put 32 years of your passion and energy into your career, all you really want is to walk out leaving the police service better off than when you went in,” she said.
Now retired, she still does her bit to help out where she can. Those in need who cross her path find themselves blessed with the intervention of a once high-ranking officer who knows the ropes and how to work the system.
It may be something, but it’s nowhere near the dream she has for a better police service for all.
Would you like to comment on this article?
Sign up (it's quick and free) or sign in now.
Please read our Comment Policy before commenting.