Newly elected chairperson of Parliament’s Portfolio Committee on Police Ian Cameron plans to focus on improving specialized units by hiring more people.

The Democratic Alliance (DA) Member of Parliament was elected yesterday, he replaced the African National Congress’s (ANC) Albert Seabi.

At the first sitting of the Parliament’s Portfolio Committee on Police, members of the South African Police Services (SAPS) committed to work together with the committee to fight crime.

Cameron however raised concerns about the police force.

“It was very clear to me that resource allocation remains a problem in the South African Police Service and of course, IPID. I think what stood out to me and these are the questions that would then lead is why are we not pushing harder to get more detectives and crime intelligence capability and so too with those specialized units. It’s very clear when you look at crime statistics even though the last quarter was not released, they will be soon, it was very clear to us that we’ve got a crisis. So, it was a positive discussion and it seems the Minister believes the same,” states Cameron.

He added that he will also focus on the wellbeing of police officers.