Community Policing
Community Policing is a broad operational philosophy on the understanding that safety and security can be improved through the establishment and maintence of an active partnership between the community and the police. This partnership is realised at the local level where the community interact directly with the law enforcement officials. There are two main objectives of community policing, the first is to enhance the relationship between the law enforcement officials and the community members, and the second is to improve service delivery. Often building a partnership remains a challenge given the existing attitudes and perceptions between these two groupings, the resource constraints – both human capacity and equipment – and the fundamental belief that efforts by one, or both parties, are unlikely to curb the proliferation of crime and insecurity.
The prevailing operational philosophy to community policing as utilised in South Africa is referred to as Sector Policing. Under this approach, the smaller territorially defined sectors form the basis for the police-community relationship. At a local level, the Safety and Security programme also deals with the issue of municipal policing which looks at how safety and security is undertaken at the local government, metropolitan or city-wide level. Historically, municipal policing has been built environment driven given the comparatively greater responsiveness of the metropolitan authority to traditional planning and infrastructural issues. In support of the work on community policing, the Programme undertakes research – often in the form of crime surveys – to understand the extent of crime, the trends and dynamics. A critical component of the community policing depends on public awareness and education around the issues of safety and security. Often public awareness and education will highlight new crime prevention initiatives, policies, strategies and plans.
Public awareness/public education
Policy and plans
SaferAfrica assist law enforcement agencies with the implementation of agreed policies, agreements and initiatives. As an organization we assist law enforcement agencies in the development of strategies for implementation and timetabling of the necessary steps in the form of an action plan. The action plan is a useful tool for the coordination of role players, the prioritization of activities and resources, and the allocation of responsibly for action. In some instances, the law enforcement agency have all the necessary information at hand for the development of the action plan, and in those cases, we merely perform the role of facilitator. In other cases, the law enforcement agencies require intervention to gather the necessary information to inform the generation of the policies and plans. In these cases, SaferAfrica engage in the research process in conjunction with the law enforcement officials we are partnering with to ensure that reliable, timely and relevant information is readily available.
Sector policing
Sector policing is an approach to policing whereby the service area of a police station is divided into smaller, manageable areas known as sectors. For each sector, the South African Police Service appoint a police official who is known as the sector commander. Under the sector commander uniform police and detectives will be appointed to assist the sector manager and the community in addressing crime related issues. The community and its sector commander are active partners in ensuring local safety and security. The one cannot function without the other.
The sector commander involves all role-players in:
- identifying the policing needs in the sector; and
- dealing with the root causes of crime and factors that contribute to crime.
The goal is to bring about effective crime prevention by launching intelligence-driven crime-prevention projects in partnership with the local community.
Advantages of Sector PolicingSector Policing:
- is a practical form of community policing as it involves policing smaller, more manageable areas;
- ensures more effective crime prevention, because attention is given to the causes of crime and the factors and circumstances that allow crime to take place in a sector;
- contributes to community involvement, which leads to sound partnerships between the police and the community;
- encourages and enables communities to take greater responsibility for their own safety and security;
- improves the relationship between the police and the community, which increases the community’s trust in, respect for and understanding of the police, reduces the fear of crime and improves service delivery by the police; and
- is policing at its most basic.
The sector commander must:
- implement short-term, medium-term and long-term strategies to eradicate the factors that contribute to crime;
- report identified problems at the daily Station Crime Forum (SCF) meetings to launch crime-prevention strategies or projects to deal with those issues;
- gather the necessary information to develop and implement effective and practical crime-prevention strategies for the sector;
- to mobilise and organise the community to jointly act against local crime; and
- to act as liaison between the community and the local police station;
- As a crime prevention officer, he/she is responsible for the plans and projects to address crime in the sector.
- Community members must attend SCF meetings to discuss action plans with the sector commander in order to deal with crime in the sector;
- launch and participate in neighbourhood initiatives to safeguard the community;
- provide information and inputs to prevent crime in the sector;
- actively support sector policing by volunteering as reservists in the sectors;
- get involved by contacting the sector commander and secure the neighbourhood;
- local businesses, councillors, resident associations and community leaders are called upon to participate in all efforts to deal with factors that contribute to crime in the sector.
Municipal Policing
The enhancement of municipal policing through the development of crime prevention strategies at a local government was the objective of a series of studies on crime at a metropolitan level. The project conducted by SaferAfrica aimed to improve the accessibility of local government to experiences learnt and best practices on urban crime prevention. The project analysed the various approaches applied by different role players to urban crime prevention; examined how these approaches were developed and implemented; and scrutinize these approaches for the best practices and lessons learnt for local government. More concisely, the research project aimed to answer the question of what local authorities were doing about crime within their geographic localities. It outlined who were the role players involved in addressing crime, what their crime prevention strategies were and how these strategies were implemented. By synthesizing this information as separate case studies of Khartoum, Tshwane/Pretoria, Johannesburg and Nairobi it provides reference material to local government officials and civil society organizations that are interested in developing their own crime prevention strategies drawing on the lessons and experiences of other local authorities and civil society organisations.
Four case studies were conducted, each utilising a similar methodology. The methodology involved the use of semi-structured interviews with key role players at a local government level, both within the public and private sector. The case studies utilised were the metropolitan area of:
- Johannesburg
- Khartoum
- Nairobi
- Tshwane/Pretoria
Research and surveys
A number of different research methods have been utilised by the policing programme for information gathering, monitoring and evaluation. These include the following:
- Opinion Surveys: A key component of the National Mapping Process is under taking a national opinion survey on key socio-security indicators. The purpose of the survey is two fold: to provide information to describe conditions on the ground, and to provide baseline information to monitor impacts from the implementation of the National Action Plan on SALW.
- Law Enforcement Surveys: Law Enforcement Surveys are quantitative tools for assessing both the attitudes and perceptions of law enforcement personnel to particular issues, as well as describing conditions on the ground. The Law Enforcement Surveys were conducted as part of the national mapping processes to provide information for the analysis phase.
- Expert Opinion Surveys: As means of undertaking an assessment of the Regional and National Models for Coordinated Action on SALW in the Great Lakes and Horn of Africa, and Tanzania respectively, expert surveys were conducted.
- Crime Surveys: A crime prevention project was designed and implemented in response to a request by the Mauritius Police Force to both gather information on crime trends and dynamics. The information collected and synthesised in conjunction with the information from the law enforcement workshops.
- Law Enforcement Workshops: Law enforcement Workshops are conducted in order to collect qualitative information on various safety and security issues.
Public awareness/public education
SaferAfrica works in collaboration with both governmental and non-governmental organisations on increasing public awareness about the issues related to policing, safety, security and small arms.
Usually, public awareness of SALW related issues is raised through national media, education programmes and open discussion forums such as seminars, roundtables, workshops etc. These events are usually selected for their complementarily and coordinated to maximise their impact most often under the banner of a sustained public awareness campaign.
Within the non-governmental spheres, public awareness raising usually gains momentum in advance of high profile events such as the UNPoA Review Conference. At a governmental level, there is an obligation to inform the population about firearm related issues such as firearm safety, firearm ownership requirements, firearm laws and procedures, etc. This is particularly important following the revision of national legislation, regulations and administrative procedures that deal with firearms, ammunition, explosives and related materials. Often public awareness raising is undertaken in support of crime prevention and weapon collection programmes.
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