Making SA safer: ISS has proposals on improving police performance for GNU

The crime rate in our country is staggering, and many South Africans simply do not feel safe.

The government should prioritise a targeted programme of reform that measurably improves policing over the coming five years, says the Institute for Security Studies.

Accordingly, the ISS has compiled a comprehensive report providing recommendations for the incoming government of national unity.

The report is based on three decades of analysis of crime and policing in SA.

It focuses on five key areas:

Leadership and professionalisation
Serious violent crime
Police corruption and accountability
Data, technology and modernisation
Auxiliary policing

Thabo Shole Mashao talks to Gareth Newham, head of Justice & Violence Prevention at the ISS.

Newham says the report was delivered after two years of intensive work which entailed extensive consultation including with members of SAPS, various outside experts, retired police generals and other research institutions.

"We've been focusing on policing in South Africa since 1996... and since about 2012 we've been concerned about a situation where some of the key indicators of police performance were declining."

Gareth Newham, Head: Justice & Violence Prevention Programme · Institute for Security Studies

Citing just one example, Newham highlights a decline in the ability of police to solve murders and other violent crimes.

"Back in 2012 they could solve 31% of the murder dockets, by last year they could only solve 12%. That's one example, but there are many others."

"With the July 2021 violence we thought there was really a need to look at the institutions, big and complex with over 180 000 people, and what could be done to change the organisation and improve its overall functioning. That's where this report came from."

Gareth Newham, Head: Justice & Violence Prevention Programme · Institute for Security Studies

To hear more from Newham, listen to the interview audio at the top of the article