Student Name Babalwa Ndovela

Module Name Introduction to Criminal Justice

Module Code CFSD102H2

Assignment Critically Discuss community policing and its effectiveness in

combating crime in contemporary South Africa
Deadline 16 September 2022
Wordcount 1436

1.

Date Signed & 16 September 22

Submitted
TABLE OF CONTENT
1. List of Abbreviations…………………………………………………………………………………………….2
2. Introduction……………………………………………………………………………………………………..….3
3. Body…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..…3
Origin of Community Policing in South Africa…………………………………………………3
The Goals and Principles of Community Policing in South Africa………………….3-4
The Challenges of Community Policing in South Africa…………………………………….4
Effectiveness of Community Policing in Combating Crimes in South Africa……4-5
4. Conclusion……………………………………………………………………………………………………………….5
5. List of References……………………………………………………………………………………………………6

List of Abbreviations
 CP- Community Policing
 COP- Community Oriented Policing
 CJS- Criminal Justice System
 CPF- Community Policing Forum
Introduction
Bezuidenhout (2020, p.71) defines community policing as a cooperation between the police
and the people in the community that serves to resolve crimes and safety issues in that area.
He further states that it is a policing strategy that aims to improve the relationship between
the police and the people thus enabling the police to achieve more effective crime control,
provide better police service and police legitimacy. This essay will critically discuss
community policing and its effectiveness in combating crime in contemporary South Africa.
This will be done by providing the reader an understanding into the origins of community
policing in South Africa, the goals and principles of community policing, the challenges of
community policing and finally the effectiveness of community policing in combating
crimes.
Body

 Origin of Community Policing in South Africa

The philosophy of community policing was introduced after apartheid in order to build
trust between the police and the people, especially black citizens of South Africa who
were victims of police brutality during the apartheid era and had thus lost trust in the
police (Minnaar (2010)). In 1991, the African National Congress (ANC), Inkatha
Movement and the government signed a National Peace Accord that stipulated the
general provisions relating to the behaviour of the police (Pelser (1999)). The 1991
National Peace Accord initiated the first framework for police accountability and that
ultimately shaped the community policing philosophy that was yet to come. In 1993, the
Interim Constitution (Act No 200 of 1993) was born and which saw the official
introduction of community policing as well as Community Policing Forums (CPF)
(Bezuidenhout 2020, p.71). The CPF is defined as a group of people from different
communities who meet to discuss safety issues in their communities and how to resolve
them (CVWA (2022)).
It is mandatory for every police station in South Africa to have a CPF. Bezuidenhout
(2020 p.72) states that the Interim Constitution (Act No 200 of 1993) stipulated the
general provisions of the CPF and was then included in the Constitution of South Africa
as well as the South African Police Service Act 68 of 1995. He further states that both the
philosophy of community policing and the CPF were then formalised and entrenched into
the Constitution to ensure their effectiveness. According to Bezuidenhout (2020, p.71),
CP was officially implemented into South Africa in 1994. In April 1997 the Department
of Safety and Security published its first formal policy on CP which was known as the
Community Policing Framework and Guidelines and that was how CP was founded in
South Africa (Pelser (1999)).

 The Goals and Principles of Community Policing

The goals of CP include achieving more effective crime control, reducing fear of
crime, improving quality of life and improving police service and legitimacy (CVWA
(2022)). Effective crime control can be defined as the prevention of criminal
activities from occurring as opposed to responding to crimes when they happen
 (Jeffery (2021)). This is the primary goal of CP. One of the programs that are a part
of CP is foot patrolling of the police. According to Grabosky (1995), patrol officers
can reduce fear of crime in the community as people view police as protectors and
when they see them at work it gives them the perception that they are being watched
over and protected. Less crime in the community and the feeling of safety in the
citizens thus improves quality of life. These are the aims that the CP sets out to
achieve.

 The Challenges of Community Policing in South Africa

Police administrators have the duty to come up with ways to overcome the challenges
of CP in South Africa and come up with strategies to make CP more effective.
Defining community, defining roles, changing supervisor attitudes, reorienting
recruitment, reorienting police values, revising training and reaching out to every
community are some of the challenges of CP in South Africa. StuDocu (2021) further
defines each of these challenges:
 with defining community, the police administrator must know what a
community is which is defined as a social group of people who live together
in a particular area and share the same resources, culture, norms and historical
heritage (Dictionary.Com (2022)); knowing what a community is improves
CP as the police are now able to effectively protect a particular community
without imposing their policies on neighbouring communities.
 With defining roles, the police administrator must be able to allocate roles and
define the responsibilities to CP agents so that every agent is aware of their
duties.
 With changing supervisor attitudes, new people are being promoted to a
supervisor position where they monitor the process of CP, the different
supervisors have different views on the concept of community policing with
some being against it thus prevents them from ensuring that CP agents are
doing their duties.
 With reorienting recruitment, for community policing to be successful, new
people who are supporters of CP must be recruited and trained.
 With reorienting police values, the CP agents must be people who are public
service oriented rather than those who are traditional crime control oriented.
 With revising training, CP agents must be given training that is specifically
for CP agents where they are taught problem-solving skills, effective crime
control, and social skills rather than being taught basic police skills.
 With reaching out to every community, CP must be adaptable and specific to
each community and be able to address issues that are specific to that
community for it to be effective.

 The Effectiveness of Community Policing in Combating Crimes in South Africa.

This philosophy of Community Oriented Policing (COP) was adopted from foreign
countries such as Britain and the United States of America (USA) and implemented
into South Africa (Brogden (2002)). It might have worked in these first-world and
 developed countries but in South Africa a third-world, developing country
community policing has failed to effectively combat crimes. The goals of community
policing as mentioned above are achieving more effective crime control, reducing
fear of crime, improving quality of life and improving police service and legitimacy;
for community policing to be effective it must achieve all these goals and it has not
done so. In 2022, South Africa was voted as the third-highest crime rate country in
the world and number one in Africa with it also having the third-highest rape rate in
the world (World Population Review (2022)). This shows that CP has not been
effective in preventing crime. In a study that was done in Limpopo where people
were asked about the effectiveness of CP in their communities most of the
participants said that community policing is not very effective in combating crime in
their community and they said this is because of the lack of community partnership
with the police, lack of trust, participation and communication (Malatji (2016)). In
2021, there were unauthorised riots, looting and vandalising of private and
government properties all over different parts of KwaZulu Natal, Gauteng and
Eastern Cape. These acts were criminal, and they show just how ineffective CP is
because if it was effective, patrol officers would have been alerted of the possible
social unrests whilst they were patrolling, and they could have contained the issue
before it escalated. This shows that there has been no improvement in police service
and legitimacy. All of this ultimately depreciates quality of life and increases fear of
crime meaning that CP has not achieved the goals that it set out to achieve and is
therefore not effective.

Conclusion
This essay has provided the reader with some insight on what community policing is and how
effective it is in combating crime. It showed that community policing is not effective in
combating crime in South Africa and even provided the reader with some reasons as to why it
is not effective. Most importantly it has showed that the criminal justice system in South
Africa still has a lot of room for improvement and should improve because the safety of the
people depends on the functioning of the CJS and if it is lacking then no one is safe.
REFERENCES
Bezuidenhout, C (2nd Editor) 2020, The Southern African Perspective on Fundamental
Criminology, Pearsons, South Africa

Brogden, M. Nijhar, P., 2013. Community Policing. Wilan.

Crowl, J.N., 2017. The effect of community policing on fear and crime reduction, police
legitimacy and job satisfaction: an empirical review of the evidence. Police Practice and
Research, 18(5), pp.449-462

CVWA., 2022. Community Policing Watch: Community Policing [online] Available at:
https://cvwa.org.za/community-police-forum/ Accessed at: 15 September 2022

Dictionary.com., 2022. ‘Community’ Dictionary.com, LLC

Grabosky, PN., 1995. Fear of crime, and fear reduction strategies. Current issues in criminal
justice, 7(1), pp.7-19

Jeffery, C.R., 2021. Crime Prevention. Through Environmental Design (Beverly Hills: Sage,
1971).

Malatji, M.M., 2016. An evaluation of the effectiveness of community policing forums in the
Makhwibidung Village under Greater Tzaneen Municipality in Limpopo.

Minnaar, A., 2010. The changing face of 'community policing' in South Africa, post-
1994. Acta Criminologica: African Journal of Criminology & Victimology, 2010(sed-2),
pp.189-210.

Pelser, E., 1999. The challenges of community policing in South Africa. Institute for Security
Studies Papers, 1999(42), p.10.

StuDocu., 2021. Criminology. [online] Available at:

https://www.studocu.com/en-za/document/university-of-kwazulu-natal/criminology-102/
reduced-theme-2-copy-lecture-notes-2/18527716 Accessed at: 15 September 2022

World Population Review., 2022. World Population Review: Crime Rate by Country- 2022
[online] Available at: https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/crime-rate-by-
country Accessed at: 16 September 2022