Police have declared the claims written in an email being circulated around the country about a new “arrest law” for women as false. The email claims that women have the right to refuse to go to a police station between 6pm and 6am, even when an arrest warrant has been issued.
Police have declared the claims written in an email being circulated around the country about a new “arrest law” for women as false. The email claims that women have the right to refuse to go to a police station between 6pm and 6am, even when an arrest warrant has been issued.
The email states that a woman can only be arrested by a woman police officer and can be taken to “an all women police station” and that if a woman is arrested by a male officer it has has to be proven that a woman officer was on duty at the time of arrest.
In a press statement, Grahamstown police spokesperson Brigadier Sally de Beer said: “There is no provision in an arrest warrant which stipulates that the arrest must be executed during daylight hours. “Sometimes it is impractical or impossible to arrest a wanted person during working hours and it stands to reason that the arrest must be effected between 6pm and 6am. The concept of ‘all women’ police stations is not practiced in South Africa.”
She urged people to ignore the email and to refrain from circulating it as responding to enquiries about it is wasting the police’s time.
