Only one in five South Africans currently trusts the police, and simply deploying more officers everywhere will not restore confidence.
The new reform agenda puts high-crime stations in the spotlight, but their commanders need the tools and authority to succeed.
The value of army deployments depends on whether they are used to build the capabilities needed for lasting violence reduction.
Having Stats SA validate and release crime figures would separate the statistics from police performance and depoliticise the data.
What should police body-worn cameras aim to achieve, and how will we know if they are working?
Common misconceptions may discourage police from using this proven method of optimising policing and enhancing safety.
Not all crimes have the same impact, so police should prioritise reducing harm, not just the crime count.
Why we don’t know the answer and how the police and research community can change that.
Although SAPS has an impressive performance management system that collects masses of data, it doesn’t rigorously determine impact.
A review of research finds that SA police and scholars don’t ask the right questions for evidence-based policing.
Police should create an organisational environment of critical thinking, scepticism and experimentation around their work.
Social network analysis avoids some of the limitations of existing approaches to mapping organised criminal networks.
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