South Africans have little trust in SAPS, says HSRC
The Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC) has found Gauteng residents to have the least amount of trust in police officers .
The HARCA says over the 25 years of its existence, the trust between communities and the police has always been low.
HSRC was reacting to the South African Police service's (SAPS) decision to allocate R70 million to resource and capacitate the Community Policing Forum structures in the 2022/3 financial year.
This amount is meant to assist police officers and help communities regain trust in the force.
The South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) along with the Commission for the Promotion and Protection of the Rights of Cultural, Religious and Linguistic Communities, released the 2021 July Unrest Investigative hearings reports on Monday, which indicated that police failed to detect the planning and execution of the unrest which falls within their mandate.
According to a 2022 survey conducted by Corruption Watch, between 1998 to 2010, the average level of trust in the police ranged between 39% and 42%.
This was followed by a sharp decline between 2011 and 2013, following the killing by police of 34 striking miners at Marikana, North West Province, in August 2012.
The 2016 to 2020 period lack of trust in officers was characterised by modest fluctuation between 31% and 35%. The hard Covid-19 lockdown imposed in 2020 saw instances of police brutality.
In 2021 public trust in the police dipped to a low 27%. This appears to be linked to the July 2021 social unrest.
In recent years, there has been a surge in vigilantism and mob justice because of community members not trusting the police to arrest criminals.
Strategic Lead and Research Director at the HSRC, Dr Benjamin Roberts, says there's no signs of trust between police and communities improving anytime soon.
"What we have seen since 2015 is a particular sharp decline with confidence dropping low in both 2022 and 2023 with 22% trust in the police.
"Clearly if one feels fearful in their one's place of residence it will lessen the confidence. Another contributing factor could be the actual contact with the police, it could be in the police station or in the streets.
"In some instances, it cannot always be direct experiences, it can be publicised information for example, how police responded to the Marikana Massacre.
"There has been a particular decline in certain provinces. We see in the provinces such as the Northern Cape, Gauteng, Mpumalanga, KZN, Limpopo, the 2023 provincial trust was the lowest in the last 25 years, which is concerning.
"Men tend to be more distrusting of the police, but obviously is a socio-economic characteristic with poor communities showing some element of disconnect with police."
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