ISS Seminar: No Service Without Force? Shifts in Policing Discourse: Implications for Oversight, Integrity and Human Rights

Date: 2009-06-24 to Invalid date

ISS Seminar: No Service Without Force? Shifts in Policing Discourse: Implications for Oversight, Integrity and Human Rights
Cape Town, 24 June 2009

 

In 1996, following amalgamation with the homeland police agencies, the South African Police (force) was renamed the South African Police Service (SAPS). Organisational symbols were introduced or rearticulated in an attempt to cleanse the SAPS of its dirty past. Yellow vehicles were replaced with white, brown special task team uniforms were replaced with blue, and military ranks were replaced with civilian. Police liberties with force and firearm use were drastically reduced and oversight structures were established, most well-known amongst which is the Independent Complaints Directorate. No longer would the organization be a force unto its own. Instead it would be a service for the people, upholding the constitution, working with integrity, and respecting the human rights of every citizen.

 

On May 10th, 2009, President Zuma announced that the Department of Safety and Security - in which the SAPS is located, shall now be known as the Department of Police. The name change suggests a new approach to the governance of safety and security in South Africa. This is important when considered against an official rhetoric of violence and ill tolerance that has seemed to gain momentum in public space. Over the past year, phrases such as “shoot the bastards”, “shoot to kill”, “no mercy for criminals”, “war on crime”, “war on drugs”, and “zero tolerance” have increasingly peppered public statements by political and police leadership. A tension seems to have arisen between the expectation that police carry out their function with civility and respect for human rights, while placing increasing pressure on them to “do whatever is necessary” to bring criminals to book. This contradiction and the pressure placed on police to deliver, is evident in reports of police manipulation of crime statistics and continued use of torture.

 

Are the politicians simply pandering to the electorate, or is this rhetoric indicative of deeper shifts in thinking in the corridors of power? How will SAPS members on the ground interpret the contradiction between the egging on by politicians, and the constitutional framework in which they were trained to operate? Most importantly, if police members are explicitly told to bend the rules, what impact could this have in undoing the gains made in policing with integrity and respect for human rights, that was so carefully planned in the shift from the South African Police force to the South African Police Service?

 

You are invited to attend a seminar that will consider these questions. The seminar will also launch the latest edition of South African Crime Quarterly.

 

Date: Wednesday, 24 June 2009
Venue: Committee Room, Centre for the Book, 5 Queen Victoria Street, Cape Town
(Please park on Queen Victoria Road, or in the parking lot behind the venue, Tel: 021 424 6320)

 

Programme

 

09h30-10h00: Registration, tea and coffee
10h00-10h10: Welcome and introduction (Dr Johan Burger, Senior Researcher, ISS)
10h10-11h25: Panel presentations: 1. Human rights and policing (David Bruce, Senior Researcher, CSVR) 2. The role of the institution in oversight (Mr Elias Valoyi, Acting Executive Director, ICD) 3. Case study explorations of the management of integrity at three Gauteng stations (Andrew Faull, Researcher, ISS)
11h25-12h20: Discussion, questions and answers
12h20- 12h25: Closing remarks and thanks
12h25-13h00: A light lunch will be served

 

This seminar is made possible through the generous funding of the Hanns Seidel Foundation and the Open Society Foundation for South Africa

 

RSVP: Ms Busiswa Nyume, Tel: 012 346 9500; Email: [email protected]

 

 

Seminar Documentation