Abstract
With the end of the apartheid regime in South Africa, new police service was needed to promote the transition to democracy. Community policing was introduced from the United Kingdom in the 1990s into South Africa as a channel to heal the wounds and injustices of the past. Over Twenty-five years down the road, community policing in South Africa has made little or no impact on the majority of South Africans who will openly admit that they do not attend their local community forums, because they simply do not trust the police because of its oppressive past. It is a widely held view by several South Africans that the Police Service simply cannot change overnight from being a very brutal force to become the protectors of citizen’s human rights. This research is a qualitative study; whereby an extensive literature review was carried, exploring the issues and concepts related to community policing. The findings are that community policing has achieved its desired results. All citizens must go back to the drawing board again to bring community policing back on track for the benefit of all citizens to whom the police serve and protect. The author argues that the bitterness and divisions of the past must put be put to one side and that all citizens must co-create a country, where all South Africans are proudly part of and allowed to make their contributions.
Highlights
For a better understanding, the article is separated into several parts
Community policing became the dominant model for policing in many countries towards the end of the twentieth century – including the US, Australia, New Zealand, and the Netherlands – and it is premised on greater interaction between the police and citizens [2]
The five components of community policing are found in the South African government policy document of 1997 summarised as follows: – familiar and acceptable service, encapsulated in the provisioning of a professional police service that is responsive to community needs; – professionalisation and partnership; – finding solutions to problems that cause crime; – accountability: law enforcement free from biases; – empowerment of communities/members to make meaningful contributions in their respective communities
Summary
The article is separated into several parts. The first part explores the meaning of community policing through international and South African perspectives by explaining what the research is all about, including the research aims. While the final part of the article looks at what the government, policymakers must do for community policing to be successfully implemented in South Africa. Skolnick & Bayley [4] provide us with four possible reasons for supporting foot patrols and a reduction in police emergency responses to crime in our communities. The five components of community policing are found in the South African government policy document of 1997 summarised as follows: – familiar and acceptable service, encapsulated in the provisioning of a professional police service that is responsive to community needs; – professionalisation and partnership; – finding solutions to problems that cause crime; – accountability: law enforcement free from biases; – empowerment of communities/members to make meaningful contributions in their respective communities.
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