The South African Policing Union says it wants communities to take a stand against the ongoing killing of police officers. According to the union, the high number of police murders leaves communities vulnerable to crime due to the decreased number of boots on the ground.

SAPU’s Tumelo Mogodiseng says there is already a shortage of men and women in blue. At least four police officers were killed across the country in recent days. The most recent incident took place in Khayelitsha on Sunday.

“Police killings are an attack on the state. The president of the country should really come on board to declare police killings as treason. It can’t be correct that our protectors are being killed. Who’s going to protect the communities?”

Mogodiseng says the nation is already dealing with a shortage of cops. He says these murders only exacerbates the situation:

“It is so concerning that we’ve got a shortage of police officers, especially in Cape Town. We need more police officers, more boots on the ground, but police officers are continuing to be killed and the country is not coming to a standstill to say it stops here.”

Nationally, 31 police officials were killed between April and June.

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