Abstract
Police corruption has become increasingly topical following the corruption charges levelled against the SAPS National Commissioner early this year. South Africa has a national police service as well as one municipal and five metropolitan police services. Public debate around the ‘police’ generally fails to distinguish between these independent organisations, and perceptions of police corruption negatively undermine the entire policing fraternity. Because of this, the various police agencies should consider working together on corruption. This article examines approaches to corruption in the national, metropolitan and municipal police services. Among others, important issues that need to be addressed are the disciplinary code within the metro police departments, the lack of investigative powers granted MPD officers, and the SAPS’s failure over the past seven years to effectively implement any relevant strategies.
Highlights
Police institutions, unlike many other sectors, endow members at the very bottom of the organisational hierarchy with abused discretionary power
These accounts combine with media reports on police corruption to form a public discourse in which all police across national, metropolitan, municipal and traffic departments are often painted with a single, tarnishing brush
As with the hearsay and media discourses, neither of the surveys mentioned above are clear on which police are involved in the perceived and real corruption. While to some these distinctions may be irrelevant, their importance is evident when considering that the SAPS, each of the country’s five metropolitan departments, and the only municipal police department, are each independently responsible for the management of corruption in their organisations
Summary
Police corruption has become increasingly topical following the corruption charges levelled against the SAPS National Commissioner early this year. One of the only other major surveys producing relevant data, the ISS’s 2003 national Victims of Crime survey revealed ‘traffic fines’ and ’policing’ respectively to be the two areas in which respondents were most likely to have been asked to pay bribes In both these surveys, as with the public discourse referred to above, it becomes unclear which ‘police’ are being referred to. As with the hearsay and media discourses, neither of the surveys mentioned above are clear on which police are involved in the perceived and real corruption While to some these distinctions may be irrelevant, their importance is evident when considering that the SAPS, each of the country’s five metropolitan departments, and the only municipal police department, are each independently responsible for the management of corruption (and all other functions) in their organisations. With the increasingly public presence of metro police, in Gauteng, this trend is fast changing
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
