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As technology becomes increasingly integrated into policing, with social media particularly contributing to smart policing, understanding frontline officers’ attitudes in this regard remains pivotal towards the successful implementation of social media usage in policing in South Africa. This study explores how detectives in Edenvale perceive WhatsApp and Facebook for reducing house robberies, anchored in the Diffusion of Innovations (DOI) Theory. Employing a qualitative, exploratory design, data were collected through semi-structured interviews with purposively selected detectives and were analysed thematically. The findings reveal cautious optimism among the officers as they view social media as offering a clear relative advantage in terms of speed, real-time, and enhanced community engagement. Nonetheless, concerns regarding complexity (digital literacy gaps), compatibility (fit within existing investigative protocols), and organisational readiness, including institutional support and policy clarity not only undermine optimism but also pose some challenge to full and effective adoption. Limited opportunities for trialability and the mixed observability of successful outcomes further temper enthusiasm. The study concludes that targeted digital literacy training, structured pilot projects, and clear organisational policies could enhance the diffusion and sustained use of social media for house robbery prevention. This research contributes to understanding the dynamics of innovation adoption within policing contexts in South Africa, highlighting the nuanced role of technological integration in community safety.

The Nyumba Kumi initiative, launched in Kenya in 2013, is a community-oriented strategy designed to improve security by neighbourhood cooperation, information exchange, and shared accountability. Despite being applied across the country, its efficacy in densely populated informal settlements is variable and inadequately researched. This qualitative research utilises social disorganisation theory to examine the Nyumba Kumi Initiative in Mathare and analogous metropolitan locales, highlighting essential insights from these environments. The study employed a qualitative framework, including comprehensive interviews, focus group dialogues, and key informant conversations with community participants, local authorities, Nyumba Kumi representatives, and security personnel. Thematic analysis was employed to investigate community viewpoints, operational methodologies, and obstacles related to the initiative in urban informal settlements. The results demonstrate that the program has enhanced contact amongst neighbours and facilitated the reporting of suspicious behaviour in certain locales. Nonetheless, the execution in informal settlements encounters obstacles such as elevated population density, residential transience, inadequate institutional collaboration, ethnic heterogeneity, distrust between inhabitants and security forces, and apprehensions over privacy and safety in information sharing. The effort has encountered obstacles pertaining to politicisation, insufficient public knowledge, and ambiguous responsibilities among community stakeholders. The research determines that the Nyumba Kumi Initiative has the potential to improve community safety in informal urban settings. Its efficacy depends on continuous involvement, confidence, transparent leadership, and adjustment to the distinct dynamics of each community. Perspectives from Mathare and analogous environments provide essential direction for policymakers and practitioners aiming to enhance community policing and local safety.

This study examines the role of informers in murder investigations in Krugersdorp, South Africa, through the lens of Social Learning Theory (SLT). Using semi-structured interviews with 14 law enforcement officials, the study explores the values of informers, highlighting how detectives recruit, assess, and engage with informers. Findings reveal that informers, categorised as voluntary, hidden agenda, and paid informers, enhance investigative efficiency by providing insider intelligence but also pose ethical and reliability challenges, requiring trust-building and intelligence verification. The study concludes that detectives learn informer management through observation, collaboration, and crisis-based decision-making. Recommendations emphasise structured training, ethical oversight, and institutional safeguards to optimise informer use in murder investigations and law enforcement practices in Krugersdorp. By situating informer use within both theoretical and local investigative realities, the research contributes insights to criminological scholarship, bridging criminological practice with social theory and offering policy-relevant recommendations for training, ethical oversight, and institutional safeguards in resource-constrained environments.

This paper aims to investigate the incorporation of the ILP approach in the research area. It assesses If this approach has been incorporated into crime fighting in the police station’s areas which form part of the research. The research was based in the province of KwaZulu-Natal. The aim was to establish the incorporation of ILP in the day-to-day operation of the police, and 8 participants were drawn between the CIO and OPO stationed in four districts (Mkhanyakude, Zululand, uThukela, and Amajuba). The participants included two former police officers (one former Commander of CI and a former Station Commander) who were used to validate information by active police officers. One District Commander was also interviewed. Qualitative research methodology was followed to conduct the research and a purposive method of data gathering was used targeting police officers who work in crime intelligence units and those who have authority over the operational members of the SAPS. They provided information that was used to determine the incorporation of the ILP in the day-to-day operation of the SAPS in the research area. The paper found that this policing approach has not been incorporated into some components of policing in the research area. The major identified stumbling in the incorporation is the structural arrangement of the Crime Intelligence Unit which does not sync with crime combating at the station level.

The use of force by members of the South African Police Service (SAPS) has been widely reported. Unfortunately, the situation does not seem to be improving. However, it is not yet reported whether the members of the SAPS instinctively display aggressive or nonaggressive behaviour in response to the handling of violent and non-violent protestations in South Africa. Therefore, this article aims to assess whether police’s behaviour in the handling of protestations is instinctively aggressive or nonaggressive. Secondly, the article reflects on the possible factors that may contribute to the police’s aggressive behaviour towards protestations in South Africa. This article makes use of videography, which is a qualitative method of inquiry and interpretive in nature. Videography involves analysing video data as a focused hermeneutical and ethnographic exercise. In this regard, video recordings that are publicly accessible online which show South African police’s responses and conduct when handling protestation were analysed. Such videos were purposefully selected as they were deemed fit and useful for the object of this paper. Another method that was applied is a critical review of literature on police brutality in South Africa. Based on the analysis of evidence flowing from video analysis, it is clear that members of the SAPS tend to display aggressive behaviour when responding to violent protestations. At the same time, some members of the SAPS seem to lose their temper due to provocations by protesting individuals. The article reveals that the handling of protestations requires a thorough assessment of risks that may be incurred when applying various strategies for crowd management. This may need the state to invest in training and skilling the members of the SAPS in handling of violent and non-violent protestations. The article provides the basis for crowd management specialists within the SAPS to develop strategies suitable for ensuring professional and nonaggressive behaviour by the police in handling both violent and non-violent protestations.