state of community policing in south Africa
Introduction.
Steven (2014) Defined community policing as a philosophy that promotes organizational strategies that support the systematic use of partnerships and problem-solving techniques to proactively address the immediate conditions that give rise to public safety issues such as crime, social disorder, and fear of crime .Community policing involves three components: community partnerships, organizational transformation and problem-solving. All over the world there is a move away from traditional policing to community policing this is because community policing is based on the concept that the police should not be separate from the community, but rather join partnership in fighting crime. A key motivation for this move is the recognition that the police cannot control crime and disorder alone and South Africa, not an exception.
However, this assessment will discuss the state of community policing in South Africa before and after the police apartheid regime by explaining the reason why the police and the community were not working together in fighting crime and where they are today by using theories of community policing will also give a reflection on the topic considering what I have learned in the course and it will conclude with my thought on future community policing in South Africa.
History
During the apartheid era, the role of the South African police was to protect the state against people from rebellion. Marais and Rauch (1999) stated that ”The role of the south African police in relation to the black community was defined in terms of discriminatory legislation which was designed to control and regulate the lives and the activities of political activity in the black population and the criminalization of many forms of political activity in the black community meant that the police served to protect the apartheid system of government through intimidation use of force and coercion ”due to the above statement the black community were considered as inferior and they racial oppression lead them to degradation of their life and it caused rise to South African people seeing the police as a powerful tool in the hand of the apartheid regime. There was no community policing, therefore, the police were responsible for communities which also rose in mistrust and separations between the police and communities.in 1994 the police adopted community policing as a guiding philosophy. The establishments of community policing forums become a legal obligation for all the police stations which allowed the community to engage with the local police on a regular basis. The community policing philosophy resulted in improved accountability and police-community relations which resulted to the transformation of the police and South African public begin to see police as a legitimate service. The community started to looks to the police for help with their problems, of which some are not crime related. However, in spite of the establishment of community policing forums, problems are still there as the crime is increasing. (Brogden & Shearing, 2005)
Pelser, (1999) Stated that Since 1994, South Africa has held four-yearly elections that have been proclaimed free and fair by local and international monitors. It has also embarked upon large-scale legislative and other reforms that affect every facet of government and society. These include police reforms, which have been widely recognized worldwide.In the negotiations for a peaceful transition of power, prior to the 1994 elections set up the first ever black majority democratic government in South Africa. The drafters of the interim constitution were well aware of the need to transform the South African police. The main emphasis in this transformation was firstly on changing the way that the South African public was policed. the secondly, previously under-policed communities were better police with regard to service delivery and the allocation of resources. thirdly, policing strived to follow a more democratic and human right oriented form of policing and to carry out the above-mentioned visions of policing in South Africa the policy makes decided to make community policing as the core transformation policing approach
unfairness policing
social disorganization
Preceding from the above statement it becomes apparent that in South Africa during apartheid ,there was no cooperation between the police and the community members because of the perception of unfairness policing towards the black community members. As a result, the country was faced with high crime rate, social disorders and fear of crime. Markowitz et al., (2001) recognized that community plays are a big role in maintaining social effective social control and preventing criminal behaviour, especially for young people. If there is no social control among the community then it is said that there is social disorganization. During this apartheid, community member did not really concentrate on fighting crime, all what they were concern was to be free from that regime which in the process brought in this social disorganization which made it very difficult for the police to control such delinquency and crimes like gang-related crime. The social disorganization theory further explains that community with dense social ties is able to control deviant behaviour compared to communities without dense social ties. In this case there was no social ties as the living condition of the black community people were very poor and could not really like the way they were treated and separated from the white communities.
social insulation
Furthermore, the location in which the black communities were residing was not well structured and this separation of whites who were rich at the time and poor black communities created social insulation whereby the rich separated themselves from the scene of social distress, social differences and social risks that was affecting the black communities. Rauch (2000) stated that separation caused the blacks living in places that support criminal activities such as unattended buildings to have more crime rate in such areas. These practices are known as broken window theory .It explains that failure to solve small problems it can lead to more serious ones. For example, an abandoned vehicle or buildings sends messages to the community that there is no order in such a place and criminal activities can take place anytime and such place attracts people who might create public disorders such as young people smoking in it, plain their criminal activities, gang rape and murder, such places create an easy way for the criminal to feel comfortable when committing crimes and if such minor problem is solved the more serious crime will not take place. During that time South African police never addressed this above-mentioned issue and it developed into more serious crimes such as gang forming among the young and adults and resulted in fear of crime in the country.
Democratic policing
The implementation of community policing in South Africa after independence allowed the community members to feel they have the rights to make decisions on how policing should be and that motivated them to work hand in hand with the police and begin to trust them. Community members joined community policing programs such as reservist, neighbourhood watch, recreation teams and community against crime programs. This is called democratic policing, whereby the police force becomes publicly accountable for their actions, subject to the rule of law, respecting of human dignity and only interferes with certain limited circumstances as per the constitution and other specified regulations. The community is being policed by consent as police engage with the public both in their duties and the way or procedure of doing their work. This allows them to lay complaints against each other and solve the problem in a proper manner without any fear. (Rauch, 2000)
community policing theories.
Community policing theory recognize three key elements: firstly, community partnerships which explain that collaborative partnerships between the police and individuals and the organizations they serve to develop solutions to problems and increases trust in the police. further recognizes that police cannot solve public safety problems alone, encouraging interactive partnerships with relevant stakeholders. These potential partners are can be used to accomplish the two interrelated goals of developing solutions to problems through collaborative problem solving and improving public trust.
Through community policing South African police service is working together with the community in finding out the problems affecting the country and coming up with the solution. This is called problem-oriented policing, one of the key elements of community policing. Problems can be solved using the SARA model which is a problem-solving model that involves scanning, analysis, response, and assessment. This model is used to provide solutions to deal with Crimes and other crime-related activities:
Scanning: here the police will identify the problem and be able to describe it in details. For instance, in this case, could be organized crime by gangs.
Analysis: Once the police identify organized crime by gangs as the problem, they will need to identify members of these gangs, their motivations, their numbers, and the environmental factors that support their activities.
Response: the police will then come up with solution to combat the problem of organized crime, police beings to work with the community regarding the problem than the community will look it the ways to prevent such gain from function, such as reporting their movements to the police try to get more information about them and helping them to be rehabilitated to make good citizens.
Assessment: The enforcement agents and agencies would evaluate the process and determine its impact and effectiveness in combating crime. It is also at this level that they would identify additional problems that hinder the efficacy of their law enforcement activities. (Weisburd et al. 2010)
internationally accepted approaches to community policing:
Weisburd et al. (2010) South Africa has reduced crime especially social disorganized among the community, and this can be so because of the following three strategies approaches: community-oriented policing is more on the importance of creating and maintain the relationship between the police and the community to resolve problems in the community. Problem-oriented policing focuses on the importance of identifying problems based on the information provided by the community, mostly commonly delinquent patterns that can be solved through other police actions and Order maintenance policing emphasizes on maintaining public order and improving the quality of life so that public security will be guaranteed to the community. Its aim is to find solutions to the problems or activities that is treating the peace of the good citizens whether they are illegal or not. This model is based on broken window theory.
The broken windows theory
Xu (2005) explained broken windows theory is a criminological theory that describes the indicating consequence of urban disorder and vandalism as contributors to crime and anti-social behaviour. The theory states that continuing and observing urban area better organized or well established condition may prevent more vandalism and increase into serious crime. The broken window theory was first expressed by Wilson & Kelling (1982) and developed further by Kelling & Coles (1998). The broken windows theory assumes that minor disorder, if not taken seriously and attacked, will increase the fear of crime, informal social control, and increase crime. South African have implemented this theory based the fact that by controlling minor disorders, serious crimes can be reduced. The broken windows theory has gained support from several empirical studies. Available evidence shows that although there are variants of the disorder
Learning out comes
The important of theories
Through police operation course I have learned that it’s important that when using the community policing approach, the police organization should have the theory of community policing in mind, this will help in archiving the goal of creating a social bond both with the citizens and among the citizen. For example, Social disorganization theory argues that criminal behaviors occur in neighbourhood with low social bonding. One of the major principles of community policing is the creation of a social bond between the police and the citizens. Therefore, by using this theory it will be easier for the police to solve the problem with full information of the main cause of the problems and how it can be solved, including its advantages and disadvantages
Police and community relationships
As much as community has advantages, there are disadvantages to it, it requires the maintained relationship and once the relationship is broken it’s difficult to bring it back as it requires time to build such partnerships, therefore I come to understand that not a very police officers can be trusted to work in programs such as community policing because of the danger of losing the community trust if they get themselves in criminal behaviour such as corruption.
I have learned that community members know more about crime information more than the police in most cases and involving them when solving crime problem is always a success.
Democracy country and policing
I have learned that community policing can only be achieved when the is democracy in the county, policing by consent brings the community and the police together in preventing crime and finding a solution to crime problems. With community policing, the emphasis is on preventing crime before it occurs, no longer responding to requires service after the crime happens. community policing gives residents extra control over the best of life of their community. This means that the police becomes the part of the community neighborhood. This assists police get a higher feeling of resident’s desires and help residents to broaden extra accept of the police. In essence, the community joins the police branch. Together in partnership the community and police departments work together to archive a common goal of a safer and better place to live. Which is called the democracy policing.
Criminal favorable situation
I always thought the police have only the power to deals with criminal matters, but with some theories like environmental design as a form of crime prevention, I come to understand that crimes prevention not only arresting, prosecutions and correctional. Professions like town planners and building inspectors should join the police in preventing crime, because as much as the police and the community work together in fighting crime they will not succeed because of the criminal favorable situations such as building designs that support criminal activities mostly in towns.
Cooperative focus
Most of the crimes if not all, are symptoms to a real situation that is causing the culprits to involve themselves in criminal activities such as poverty, social disorder, social risks, unemployment and drug and alcohol abuse. As much as arresting is a good preventive method I feel the police should come up with the suggestion to other ministries in helping them fighting crime. For instance, police can identify street kids who are 10 to 11 years old and refer them to the ministry of education who will found out why the not schooling, then take them to the ministry of gender and social well- fare who can assist them with accommodation and social grants. In reality, police office ignores streets kids and waits for them to grow and then arresting and sentence them as a solution and the cycle don’t stop. It should be a different situation if such people like streets kids are helped at an early stage. I believe that if government ministries or departments can work in cooperative it will reduce crime and prevent future crimes .it will be difficulty but if there is determination it will definite work.
Conclusion
To sum up, future community policing in South Africa and the world will improve for better, much better community-oriented programs will be implemented and incorporated to support and help in achieving community policing goals. Community policing theories should be taken very seriously by the police as its evident that they can help the police and the community in preventing crime and future crime.
Reference
Brogden, M., & Shearing, C. D. (2005). Polic
