National Police Commissioner Bheki Cele on Friday told police graduates they had the right to return fire if shot at by criminals but should not become "trigger happy".

"Don't be trigger happy, assess the situation properly. We must avoid the Mabopane incident," said Cele during a parade of Tactical Team trainees at the Pretoria SAPS college.

He was referring to an incident in October in which a 28-year-old woman was killed when police fired shots at a grey Toyota Conquest she was travelling in.

Police had mistaken the car for a stolen vehicle which they had tracked to a nearby filling station, according to the Independent Complaints Directorate. Two others, a 31-year-old woman and a 28-year-old man, were injured in the incident while the driver escaped unscathed.

Cele reiterated a statement he made when announcing appointments of two new provincial commissioners in Pretoria on Thursday, saying the new recruits should shoot at criminals who shoot at them.

The two Tactical Response Teams for Durban and Johannesburg, are Cele's brainchild and aimed at meeting the medium to high security risk needs of stations and policing clusters.

They consist of a minimum of 50 members per cluster and are tasked with crime prevention, escorting of dangerous criminals, providing tactical assistance to other units within the cluster, policing of sporting events and support during disaster and incident management.

The pilot project started in the Pretoria Central Cluster.

Cele said he was proud of the graduates standing before him and warned them against being corrupted by criminals.

Cele said criminals, whom he referred to as "insane half-animals", should be the ones living in fear.

"We are sick and tired of criminals," Cele said.

He told them to use a language that criminals understood when they had to.

"It's either they will hear better or never hear again," he said.

He urged police not to be bought by criminals and said the new recruits should shoot at criminals who shoot at them.

"Squeeze the space for thugs very, very hard," Cele said.

Other tactical teams for all other clusters throughout the country will be trained and deployed by the end of December.

As with Thursday's graduates, only 40 applicants out of over a hundred can make it to the training which is at the same level as the National Intervention Unit.

Sapa

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