The Pretoria-headquartered Institute for Security Studies (ISS) has many recommendations for South Africa’s new police minister Senzo Mchunu in order to improve the performance of the SA Police Service (SAPS).
Throughout its existence to date the ISS has followed and analysed crime trends and police performance. While strides were made during the first half of the country’s democracy, police effectiveness declined since 2012, according to an ISS statement. As an example, the SAPS detection rate for murder dropped from 31% to 12% and almost three out of four people surveyed in 2021 said they had little or no trust in the police.
“This decline is partly due to a shifting crime landscape as a result of growing social and economic challenges and new technology, while the SAPS – a large and cumbersome organisation – changed very little over the past couple of decades,” Gareth Newham, ISS Head of Justice and Violence Prevention, said.
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