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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.

This study aimed to determine what general detective attributes are considered professional in the South African Police Service (SAPS) based on public assessments. This study followed a quantitative research approach and utilized a non-probability, purposive, or judgmental sampling technique. The findings confirmed that good attributes such as acting with integrity, in line with the values and ethical standards of the SAPS, expand on earlier studies that suggested informal contact raises public opinion of the police. It could be that those predisposed to be more favorable are likelier to initiate informal contact with officers. In any event, it seems likely that promoting informal social contact may favorably influence public opinion. The SAPS may want to evaluate how they encourage or discourage informal contact with residents. It would seem then, from the findings of this study, that if more general detectives would portray greater attributes when interacting with the public, there would be more legitimacy, less victimization, less fear of crime, lower perceived levels of violent crime, a lower perceived disorder in one’s neighborhood, and higher neighborhood cohesion and control.

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 need for globalisation and a competitive edge in the ever-changing policing trends and crime-combatting strategies necessitates training and development interaction on a global platform. Essential in this regard is the development of skills, among others the training, development, and support of the South African Police Service (SAPS), through local and international training interventions in policing. This study followed the quantitative research design using the random sampling method. One hundred respondents from various SAPS divisions and at provincial level who attended international police training interventions were used as respondents and subjected to the completion of structured questionnaires. The main topic of this research revealed that international law enforcement training interventions were beneficial to the SAPS as it impacts positively on the SAPS’ effectiveness in service delivery. The results of this study is indicative that SAPS engages in the international field on policing practices as a means to train and develop its members beyond the scope of local practices to enable them to expand their knowledge and skills in order to further improve service delivery.

Societies` views concerning the Criminal Justice System institutions are shaped not only by opportunities to interact with such institutions during normal work but also in part by efforts due to the larger mission (of these institutions) of encouraging and supporting such attitudes. Due to the global COVID 19 pandemic, most countries have implemented a lockdown as an initiative to control the spread of the virus. South Africa is no exception as the country joined most countries and announced the national lockdown in March 2020. With the national lockdown, Criminal Justice agencies such as the South African Police Service (SAPS) and the South African National Defence Force (SANDF) were deployed across the country to ensure compliance with the lockdown regulations. The police are the most visible and powerful arm of the state, the nature of the state and the way it is perceived has a profound impact on police-community relations and vice versa. With South Africa’s pronouncement of the national lockdown and state of emergency due to the pandemic, more inquiries and investigations into police practice during the national lockdown will be made. It is precisely in this context that this study aims to reflect on police-community relations during the national lockdown. A criminological analysis on the ramifications of the dented police-community relations due to the national lockdown will be explored. With the national lockdown regulations, clearly gazetted, this study will also employ criminological theories to further interrogate the regulations that impacted on the dented police-community relations.

In South Africa, members of the South African Police Services (SAPS) are constitutionally mandated to protect society. However, while executing their duties, they continuously experience an alarmingly high rate of attacks from alleged criminals, often leading to the death of SAPS members. Subsequently, this situation increases the staff shortage for patrolling the streets and arresting criminals. The situation's aftermath also leads to increasing community perceptions that crime is out of hand and that crime prevention strategies are ineffective. This study examined the ordeal of police victimization in the Mthatha Policing Cluster, Eastern Cape, South Africa. A questionnaire was used for data collection from 105 respondents. The non-probability sampling method was used and the study employed the snowball sampling technique. Results reveal that victimization of law enforcement officers is a reality. The research questions that guided this study included: What are the upheld views by police officers of their victimization? Which factors make police to be susceptible to victimization while executing their duties? What is the impact of police victimization on policing society at large? Altogether, 80.8% of respondents revealed that police are being robbed and assaulted, and in some instances, the use of the K*** word is evident. SAPS members are not fulfilling their mandate because they fear being killed while executing their duties. In the study, new strategies are highly recommended for curbing crime, and police need to be empowered with new, modern techniques of policing.