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Date: April 29, 2024 Mon
Time: 9:48 pm
Time: 9:48 pm
Results for police oversight (south africa)
2 results foundAuthor: Faull, Andrew Title: Oversight agencies in South Africa and the challenge of police corruption Summary: During the first quarter of 2011 there were a number of high-profile police scandals. These included the Public Protector’s findings that the South African Police Service’s top management interfered in a R500 million tender process; indications that Crime Intelligence officials acted improperly to hamper a Hawks investigation into Czech fugitive Radovan Krejcir; allegations of abuse and murder against the head of Crime Intelligence and members of Tactical Response Teams; evidence of increases in fatal shootings by police, police torture, and greater pay-outs for civil claims against police. This does not bode well for an organisation struggling to contest an image of widespread corruption, most powerfully symbolised by the conviction of former National Commissioner Jackie Selebi in 2010. Fortunately South Africa has several institutions responsible for holding the police to account. The questions that need to be answered are: How effective are these institutions? And how might they play a more meaningful role in reducing police corruption and promoting police professionalism in South Africa? When the interim constitution was passed in 1993 it sought to promote the establishment of a police service that would break with the unaccountable, often abusive policing of the apartheid era. Oversight of the police was made a priority in the transformation period. The apartheid-era South African Police (SAP) force had at times been ruthless in its dealings with citizens, employing both torture and gratuitous violence in the course of its often politically driven work. No longer a police ‘force’, the new ‘service’ was to be transparent and accountable. The result in subsequent years was that, in addition to the merging and internal reformation of the SAP and ten homeland police agencies, emphasis was placed on the establishment of oversight infrastructure. With all eyes focused on police reformation and the development of external oversight, the SAPS regressed in terms of internal systems of command and control. While it is no longer perceived as overly political or brutal, the police service has developed a reputation of unprofessionalism, corruption and criminality, a reputation that has damaged citizen trust in the police. Similarly, as fear about crime escalated in the late nineties, emphasis on police oversight declined. Although it is ultimately the responsibility of the SAPS to ensure the professionalism and integrity of its members, oversight bodies have an important role to play in making sure the SAPS takes action to bring this about. While South Africa has a thriving civil society sector, which includes organisations engaged with issues relating to the police, its expertise and research findings often fail to hold the attention of government bodies. As such, its potential to offer advice is not often taken advantage of by government. This paper outlines the challenge of tackling corruption in the SAPS. It then sketches the history and structure of three of South Africa’s main police oversight bodies: parliament’s Portfolio Committee on Police, the Secretariat for police, and the Independent Complaints Directorate (ICD), and asks how these structures have dealt with corruption in the SAPS in recent years, offering suggestions for future engagement. The paper also seeks to identify possible areas in which civil society can better support the structures in their work. Details: Pretoria, South Africa: Institute for Security Studies, 2011. 20p. Source: ISS Paper 227. Internet Resource Accessed on January 26, 2012 at http://www.iss.co.za/uploads/Paper227.pdf Year: 2011 Country: South Africa URL: http://www.iss.co.za/uploads/Paper227.pdf Shelf Number: 123775 Keywords: Police BehaviorPolice Corruption (South Africa)Police Oversight (South Africa)Police Professionalism |
Author: Faull, Andrew Title: Professionalism and the South African Police Service: What is it and how can it help build safer communities? Summary: This paper explores developments in the concept of police professionalism that have emerged in South Africa in recent years. It considers professionalism in relation to comparable historical and contemporary developments in the US and UK, and consolidates the different ways in which these are currently manifesting in South Africa. Adding to the current discourse, it suggests that a professional South African Police Service (SAPS) should include a clearly defined, minimalist mandate. Details: Pretoria, South Africa: Institute for Security Studies, 2012. 24p. Source: Institute for Security Studies Paper No. 240: Internet Resource: Accessed January 13, 2013 at http://www.issafrica.org/uploads/Paper240.pdf Year: 2012 Country: South Africa URL: http://www.issafrica.org/uploads/Paper240.pdf Shelf Number: 127271 Keywords: Police BehaviorPolice MisconductPolice Oversight (South Africa)Police Professionalism (South Africa) |