Cape Town - The police have rolled out an electronic docket system to 193 police stations and tightened inspections, in a bid to crack down on lost and stolen dockets.
Briefing the media ahead of his Budget Vote speech on Thursday, Police Minister Nathi Mthethwa said 260 000 dockets had so far been scanned and entered into the police's system.
The introduction of e-dockets form part of the review criminal justice system and would be rolled out to police stations across the country.
Mthethwa said the department was also engaging with the National Prosecuting Authority to develop a performance indicator for ensuring that more dockets were court ready.
He said the police had last year surpassed its target for getting contact crimes referred to court by more than 10 percent, with 43.2 percent of contact crimes referred to court.
Mthethwa said the department had decreased the backlog at the forensic science laboratory by 14 percent between 2008/2009 to 2009/2010.
The department is planning to decrease the backlog by a further 20 percent this financial year and was consulting with international experts, including those from France, in a bid to tighten procedures in transforming the forensic science laboratory into a "word-class" unit.
The Directorate for Priority Crime Investigations, or the Hawks as they are commonly referred to, had already notched up a number of successes since their launch last year, he said.
These included the arrest of 3 850 persons suspected to be involved in organised crime, which had so far resulted in the conviction of 573 of those arrested.
Added to this more than half, or 4 960, of the 8 186 people arrested for suspicion of commercial crime had been convicted, he said.
One of the notable successes of the Hawks last year, was a drug bust on August 30, where drugs to the value of R600 million were recovered in Phoenix, Durban and four British citizens and two South Africans were arrested.
Mthethwa said the department had developed a comprehensive rural safety plan, which he would unveil in weeks to come.
The plan would among other things improve police visibility in rural areas and increase police response time and would look at enhancing relationships between police, farming communities and other rural stakeholders.
Mthethwa said he expected the re-established Family Violence, Child Protection and Sexual Offences unit to be up and running by April next year.
All vacant posts were expected to be filled by the deadline, June 1 and Lieutenant Colonel Bafana Linda, had been appointed to head the unit.
Mthethwa said Linda, who is currently in the UK as an attach, to the embassy, had extensive expertise in the field of child, family and sexual violence.
He said the Secretariat of the Police inspectorate has been instructed to investigate the best way to set up a single police force, as laid out in the Constitution.
The department would also be creating a new and disciplined police force and its numbers would be boosted by 10% over the next three years - with 17 539 expected to be taken on between now and 2013.
Commenting on preparation for the World Cup, General Bheki Cele said security plans for each of the 32 soccer teams taking part in the event were already in place and that eight of the teams had been ranked as "high risk".
Each team would have a specialised security unit which would be present with the team at matches, practices and at hotels said Cele.
He said teams would also have their own routes to and from airports.
Commenting on how the police were fairing in fighting crime in the country Mthethwa said the issue was not about talking tough, but about "tackling crime roughly".
He pointed to busts carried out by the police following the end of the government's three-month long amnesty on illegal firearms last year.
"We are gaining ground each day and we are in charge," said Mthethwa.
