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The National Peace Accord, signed by all major political parties in 1991, created various structures through which police accountability could be sought. In 1993, the Interim Constitution of South Africa Act 200 of 1993 formalized the establishment of the Community Police Forum (CPF) at police stations. The SAPS Act 68 of 1995 made a formal provision for a partnership between the police and the community in fulfilling the needs of the community regarding policing. CPF aims to ensure police accountability, transparency, and effectiveness in the community, promoting cooperation between the service and the community in fulfilling the community's needs regarding policing and promoting communication between the police and the community. It was established to maintain a partnership between the police and the communities, to jointly identify priorities and solve problems related to crime, disorder, fear, poor police-community relations and service delivery. Therefore, the police's new vision of policing was introduced by setting up CPF at police stations throughout the country. The implementation of community policing through CPFs has brought to bear the complexity, dynamics, and of social and political relationships at both the provincial and local levels. This paper aims to evaluate the effectiveness of CPF in crime prevention. Both qualitative and quantitative research methods were employed, and data were collected from 40 community members through face-to-face survey interviews. The research revealed that CPF is ineffective in reducing crime due to the lack of resources to support its functioning. The study recommends proper and frequent communication between the police, CPF and the broader community.

The objective of this study was to explore existing insights on the use of Community Policing Forums (CPFs) for crime prevention, focusing on the Brooklyn police station in South Africa. With the adoption of the phenomenological research design and the qualitative research approach, about Ten (10) participants were selected purposively at the Brooklyn police station, various data collection methods, such as the documentary sources and unstructured face-to-face interviews, aided with the application of direct observation technique was employed. The inductive Thematic Content Analysis (TCA) was employed for data analysis. The findings of this study revealed that the larger part of Brooklyn police station’s officials portrays a professional image despite this demanding career. However, participation on the ground level based on crime prevention actions is not always viable. By utilising the consulted studies and empirical data, three (03) recommendations for policy intervention are made. Firstly, respective communities should urgently avoid paying for the crime prevention private services to provide detailed crime information to the local SAPS. Secondly, the local ‘Private Security Companies’ should collaborate with the CPFs and SAPS to aid the failing crime prevention responsibilities, while working on the restoration of SAPS’s trust by the local community members. Thirdly, the SAPS management should consider persuasive strategies such as frequent education and training of community members and their officials [Undergoing refresher courses], relating to community safety initiatives and implementations of legislative frameworks and policies.