Police officers were in the firing line of criminals after 31 officers were killed between April and June this year.
This was almost double the number of police officers killed by criminals during the same period last year.
Head of crime research in the police Norman Sekhukhune told the Parliamentary portfolio committee on police on Friday that there were 31 officers killed between April and June this year, compared to 18 officers killed during the same period last year.
Sekhukhune said some of the officers who were killed were on duty while others were off-duty.
Police Minister Bheki Cele said it cannot be business as usual when so many police officers were killed.
Sekhukhune said out of the 31 officers killed between April and June 12 of the murders were in Gauteng.
In KwaZulu-Natal six officers were killed.
He said five police officers were killed in the Eastern Cape.
Sekhukhune said three officers were killed in the Free State, two in the Western Cape, two in Mpumalanga and one in the Northern Cape.
Cele said officers were putting their lives on the line when protecting communities.
Some of the crimes were prevented from happening due to police action.
He said communities would not have seen a drop in some of the crimes if police had not intervened.
But the police were not happy about the high number of officers killed.
siyabonga.mkhwanazi@inl.co.za
Politics