Challenges to a formal private security industry-SAPS partnership: Lessons from the Western Cape

Abstract

Abstract The following paper attempts to gauge the possible future of policing in South Africa by assessing the nature of the relationship between the South African Police Service (SAPS) and private security companies operating in the Western Cape. An investigation was conducted whereby the current concerns within the private security industry were assessed in relation to the developing relations with the SAPS. In so doing it was found that, despite the fact that there exists an informal co-operative relationship with the public police, there may be a number of inherent problems within the private security industry hampering the creation of a formal relationship with the SAPS in the Western Cape. These inherent problems include, for example, the fact that the industry is highly competitive and consumer-orientated (not necessarily community-orientated). Also that the industry has a stigma attached to it and demonstrates a bureaucratic nature despite being run on business principles, and the accountability of the industry is also called into question. It is therefore in view of these developing public-private relations and obstacles thereto that one can possibly predict the future role of private security in the policing of society in South Africa.