NCJ Number
174006
Date Published
1993
Length
247 pages
Annotation
This book reviews the history of South African policing under apartheid and examines options for the future philosophy and structure of policing in South Africa.
Abstract
Following an introductory chapter, the book turns to an account of the nature of South African policing under apartheid. The South African Police (SAP) has been an institution that has regularly killed, injured, and tortured many South Africans, sometimes within the legal rules and sometimes outside the rules. This review of the past is intended by the authors to provide a setting for healing to occur and for new directions to be set for the SAP. Two chapters consider the legitimacy that has accompanied police brutality and the criminalization of the struggle of the black majority for equality. A chapter then considers the implications of the conventional view of policing reform as an imitation of the structures and philosophies of western policing. The authors argue that although what the West has been doing is decidedly better than what the SAP have been doing, any reform program in South Africa must recognize that the conventional view of police reform is being widely questioned. It is this questioning and the alternatives it is prompting, rather than the conventional Western understandings of policing, that should be the departure point for social and institutional change within South Africa. The authors argue for a conception of policing that advances a mix of self-policing and state-policing. This is to ensure that those whose safety and security are at stake play a central role in determining whether and how such safety is provided. Policing thus becomes "everybody's business." The book uses the term "dual policing," in which both state and local entities are required to play a role in ensuring public safety. Central to proposals under this model is the dual responsibility of central and local authorities within a shared system of oversight and review. Chapter notes, a 330-item bibliography, and name and subject indexes