Government’s plan to restore trust in South Africa’s police
The Department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs has gazetted the Draft National Policing Policy for public comment.
The draft policy document outlines the government’s broad plans to address the numerous shortcomings of the South African Police Service (SAPS), which has failed to stem the tide of increasingly violent crime in the country.
South Africa is characterised by high levels of crime due to a myriad of socioeconomic pressures, coupled with high-level corruption and extremely low levels of trust in the police service.
The SAPS itself is mired with internal corruption, low employee morale, negligence and ill-discipline, a lack of synergy with external crime prevention groups, poor allocation of resources and political interference.
The National Policing Policy aims to give the SAPS a blueprint to get out of this dire state. However, it focuses more on the ideological goals of what policing in the country should be, rather than laying out specific policy reforms or targets.
Policing problems
According to policy document, South Africa’s police force faces ten major challenges:
- High levels of crime: While the total number of crimes reported in South Africa decreased over the last few years, the impact of Covid-19 had a lot to do with it. In reality, crime levels have only come down slightly, while violent crime has increased. Almost half of all crimes also go unreported.
- Corruption: Corruption has become endemic in South Africa, and has even breached the “highest echelon” of the SAPS. This has created leadership instability and low morale among SAPS members.
- Low levels of public trust: According to the policy document, public trust in the police service has dropped to 26%. Other surveys have shown a decline in satisfaction levels to just 54%. Members of the public report having to pay bribes just to get police services – and while this may be in the minority, there is a widely-held perception that the SAPS is corrupt.
- Low morale: Given these realities, morale within the SAPS is low. Surveys show that a lack of communication, poor recognition, lack of motivation, low rewards and limited promotion opportunities also dog the force.
- Negligence and ill-discipline: The Independent Police Investigative Directorate has received thousands of complaints about police conduct, and the SAPS has had to pay out millions of rands in claims. Not all cases make their way through IPID.
- Lack of synergy: The SAPS is a national force; there has been a noted lack of synergy and cooperation with provincial, municipal and community efforts to combat crime, making policing ineffective.
- Barriers to reporting: The structure, design, location and transparency of stations, policing services and implementation of policy makes it difficult for communities to report crimes.
- Poor governance: The SAPS is resistant to civilian oversight, and the poor implementation of oversight, lack of institutional reform and officers overstepping their functions has made for a chaotic structure.
- Poor resource management: Resources within the SAPS are distributed in a way that might undermine effective service delivery. For example, the migration of trained officers to support functions, taking needed skills away from core policing.
- Slow modernisation: Fighting crime relies on crime intelligence and interlinked systems, which the SAPS has not been able modernise. The police still function on a paper-based bureaucracy, adding immense administrative burdens on the force.
Making changes
Taking these challenges into account, the draft policy document makes some key proposals to turn the SAPS around.
These proposals do not focus much on the “how” but rather on the vision for what could be.
For example, it proposes that the SAPS and its officers become professional, knowledgeable, responsive, objective and empathetic, but doesn’t detail exactly how this is supposed to happen.
It posits that this needs to be done at the recruitment level, as well as at a cultural level within the police. Achieving this would involve setting a strict SAPS Professional Code of Conduct and Practice and implementing integrity management.
To address public trust, the policy proposes that the SAPS adopt and promote community-centred policing, where the department works with community policing forums and builds better relations to fight crime and violence.
It also proposes the fast-tracking of advanced technology to aid in crime fighting, while also strengthening specialised units within the force to take on violent crimes, commercial crimes, gender-based crimes and other “high risk” incidences.
Underpinning all of this, however, is “strong and ethical leadership”.
The policy envisions an SAPS led by “competent leadership and management at all levels of the organisation” with the required skills, knowledge and appreciation for the challenges.
“The implementation of these policy proposals will ensure effective policing and contribute towards the realization of the developmental goals of the country.
“Furthermore, these policing policy directives provide the Ministry of Police with the opportunity to enhance policing and policing oversight for a safe and secure South Africa.”
The full draft policy can be read here.
Submissions on the policy can be directed to [email protected] – the closing date for submissions is 30 November 2023.
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