Police/ policing model globally from clarity to confusion?

Elrena van der Spuy

Centre of Criminology

UCT

Types of police systems

• Historical angle: Evolution of ideas and systems –epicycles – fads and fashions

• Comparative angle: differences/ similarities

• Contemporary angle: brand names – commercial trade – adopt and adapt

Police models

Models as ideal types

Abstraction / Analytical device

In practice messier/ ambiguous/ complex

Models: Key distinctions

Structure Organisational design

Centralised Decentralised

Function Strategies

Order maintenance Crime control Law enforcement Crime prevention

Legitimacy The Constitution The party The people

Models of police: Example 1

• No sharp juxtaposition in real life

• Co-existence of traits

• Re-militarisation of policing – war on terror/drugs

MILITARY MODEL

PROFESSIONAL MODEL

Example 2 American scholar: David Bayley (1982)

Authoritarian

Community based Anglo Saxon

Military style

Community-based

Specialised

Example 3: Political geography Continental Europe More centralised More militarised Closer to government

Colonial Centralised Militarised Public order Administrative tasks Closer to government

Communist Regime maintenance

North American

Far East

Example 4

Political control Professional Model Community problem solving model

Structure Organisational design Function Strategies Technologies External relationships Legitimacy

Policing models in the NEW ERA

• Internationalisation and transnationalism - police convergence

• Fundamental changes in global context : insecurity, uncertainty, complexity

• New harms and new threats: organised crime, cybercrime, terror, mass migration, environmental disasters – far beyond street crime

• New challenges: New powers, new agencies, new techniques

• Fusion of high (political) and low (ordinary) policing

• Police increasingly displaced by other agencies - private police; emergency and welfare agencies; new security network

• Fluidity and complexity require flexibility and innovation

A look into the future

‘The twenty-first century has brought new challenges for police, in Australia as in other Western democracies. Terrorism, globalisation, large-scale population movements, and entrenched social problems pose crime control threats that are increasingly seen as beyond the scope and capabilities of traditional policing. New agencies have been established, private policing has boomed, and governments have sought to make individuals, businesses, and community organisations increasingly responsible for their own safety. To maintain, or regain, their leadership of this new agenda, police agencies need first to recognise and understand the changing environment and its challenges.’ Ransley and Mazerolle 2009 ‘Policing in an age of Uncertainty’ Police Practice and Research, 10 (4) :365–381

Example 5

Political control

Professional model Community based model

Homeland security model

Structure Organisational design Function Strategies Technologies External relationships Legitimacy

Police models in Africa?

• Colonial history - regime security

• Post Cold War: The third wave of democratisation - 1990

• New Discourse/Gospel: ‘Democratic Policing’

• Key features: Citizen security; Human rights; Procedural justice; Accountability; Effectiveness; Partnership

• The diffusion of COMMUNITY POLICING philosophy mix and combine with military tradition of policing

• Model superimposed on political system characterised by Big Men; Shallow democracies; Nepotism

Models of policing? The South African case

• Colonial roots • Authoritarian tradition under Apartheid: security of the state; counter-

insurgency • Democratic transition: Democratic policing; Community based

policing; BUT Re-militarisation

• Late democracy - the NDP: The ‘Professional’ model?

• The talk has been sweet and eloquent and the reality has been confusing and demanding

Police models in South Africa 2010+

Global environment Complexity of local context – from Houghton to Nyanga The delicate matter of state capture - independence and impartiality of SAPS Role and function of SAPS in wider security and safety field Back to Basics framing our search for Police Models?