Basic Policing
SaferAfrica makes a distinction between basic and specialized policing. Within the basic policing component, SaferAfrica focuses on both following the various debates and to undertake research on relevant issues. Issues of interest to SaferAfrica include basic police training, crime prevention, visible policing and crime scene management. The purpose of these focus areas is to better understand how partnerships between police and civil society can enhance the safety and security of the community at large.
Basic Training
With regards to basic training, SaferAfrica refer to entry level training a new recruit to the police service receives. Depending on the country in question, this training can range any where from three weeks to six months for the initial formal training modules presented at a training college, to 24 months including the in-service and field training. There are usually a number of phases to the basic police training during which the recruit is systematically exposes to different operational issues and procedures. During this training the new recruit is provided with a general orientation of the police department, the functioning of the police station and operational issues such as the modalities of crime prevention, visible policing, etc. Upon the graduation of the training recruits, the police officers are allocated to their police stations and commence with their duties. Following this, individual police officers may make application for more specialized training courses as per their preferred career directives.
SaferAfrica is supportive of initiatives to enhance the level of basic police training presented by police services. One of our initiatives is to provide a greater emphasis on the knowledge of the firearm law and practical firearm applications within the basic training curriculum.
Crime scene management
One of the many challenges facing the police service is inadequate crime scene management skills. The first person on a crime scene is often a relatively inexperienced or junior police officer whom needs to secure the crime scene until the arrival of the investigating or detective team. Through inexperience and a lack of training, valuable evidence is often destroyed as a result of inadequately securing the crime scene. Law enforcement personnel and other emergency responses personnel need to be made familiar with their roles and responsibilities in crime scene management to ensure that the physical evidence can be collected and documented. It is necessary that all personnel that come in contact with the crime scene appreciate that the maintence of the integrity of the crime scene is a shared responsibility.
Through publications such as Reference and Operational Manual for National Focal Points on SALW, SaferAfrica aims to provide information to investigators and criminality experts with guidelines to follow in order to manage the crime scene professionally (refer to chapter 10 which deals with the Standard Operating Procedures for Crime Scene Management).
Visible policing
Visible policing is a crime prevention initiative premised on the idea that through greater visual exposure to law enforcement officials, particularly the police; both safety and security will improve in a community. Police officials are deployed on the streets either through increased vehicle or foot patrols. The purpose of visible policing is to increase the physical presence of the police with a number of positive consequences. The police officials improve their knowledge of the local community dynamics, and hence are able to respond proactively to emerging safety and security needs. The response or reaction time of police to crime incidents are also greatly reduced which improves the opportunity for direct intervention. In addition to this, the police and community relations are enhanced which leads to the sharing of valuable information which can assist in intelligence gathering for preventing crime. There are challenges with visible policing with some detractors feeling it merely provides the public with a false sense of security based on the constant reassurance provided by the visible policing, while it gives the criminals get timely tip-offs from the high visibility clothing that police wear. As with most crime prevention interventions, it is one of a number of techniques which when used in conjunction with a coordinated crime strategy can curb crime.
Crime prevention
Crime prevention includes that umbrella of actions by both community members and law enforcement officials, sometimes independently and at other time in partnership, towards reducing both the actual incidence of, and the fear of, crime, violence and insecurity. SaferAfrica’s work on crime prevention focuses on understanding what actions, interventions and initiatives contribute to improving the crime situation within any given context. The programme is focused on looking at what works, and to what extent these experiences can be exported to other contexts as lessons learnt and best practices on crime prevention. This information is made available through our publications and website to provide a resource to both practitioners and researchers.
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