Monograph 110: Sector Policing on the West Rand, Three Case Studies, Jonny Steinberg
In December 2003 SAPS National Commissioner Jackie Selebi issued a
Draft National Instruction on sector policing. This monograph examines
how sector policing has been interpreted and implemented on the West
Rand. Sectors in the three station precincts are studied – Randfontein,
Roodepoort and Kagiso.
Sector policing – international and domestic context
Sector policing emerged in the early 1970s as one among a host of
experiments to address a crisis in American policing. Police leaders and
scholars had gone right back to basics and asked what it is that the
police do to reduce crime. The endeavour to answer this question has
produced a host of policing innovations in the last 30 years. These
innovations can be divided into four categories: 1) hotspot or targeted
patrolling, 2) controlling risk factors, 3) problem-oriented policing
(POP), and 4) community policing (COP).
Sector policing is an eclectic composite. It includes COP and POP
as its core, definitional components, but it usually includes targeted
patrolling and risk factor identification as well.
COP is a form of policing that mobilises civilians into crime
prevention projects. It has been successful when trained on specific
problems.
POP borrows from the philosophy of public health interventions and
applies it to policing. It ‘vaccinates’ an area against micro-crime
patterns by identifying and managing their causes.
The form sector policing takes is shaped in no small part by the
host policing culture that receives it. In recent years, South African
policing has been characterised by a strong, active national centre, and
uneven policing on the ground. The SAPS has come increasingly to rely
on high density, high visibility para mili tary policing operations –
precisely the sort of policing that a force with a strong centre and
weak personnel can execute with accomplishment. Sector policing has been
billed as a project to transcend these limitations – to restore
grassroots policing.
Sector policing on the West Rand
The West Rand ’s interpretation of the Draft National Instruction
has been ambitious and far-reaching. Station precincts’ centralised
capacities have been stripped and distributed into sub-precinct sectors.
Either the decentralised organisation polices by solving sector-based
problems, or policing simply does not work at all.
To the extent that police organisation and culture have
successfully adapted to sector policing, three crucial factors are
responsible:
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A large proportion of sector personnel are recently-recruited
police officers. Sector policing is their first and only experience of
policing. There are no old ways to be unlearned.
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Veteran middle-ranking police officers’ first experience of sector
policing has come in the form of a dramatic increase in resources and
infrastructure, and a vastly improved managerial support system.
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Area management has grasped the concept of sector policing with enthusiasm, rather than having it thrust upon them.
The most rudimentary elements of sector policing have undoubted ly been implemented successfully. This is evidenced in:
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the accomplishment with which ordinary members have abandoned
random patrolling for targeted patrolling and the identification of risk
factors;
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the degree to which officers attempt to dissolve the blurred
outlines of hotspots and transform them into specific crime patterns
rooted in specific problems;
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the range of environmental, physical and social features ordinary
members identify as crime-inducing, and their capacity to enter into
partnerships with other state agencies and civilians.
Despite these successes, the study did identify several recurring problems:
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Some Sector Crime Forums (SCFs) are working poorly. In some cases,
this is because the sector is too socially diverse. In other instances,
the SCF is used to express and to deepen civilians’ alienation from the
SAPS.
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In regard to the policing of some institutions – illegal shebeens in particular
– police culture is proving unable to absorb the philosophy of
problem-oriented policing. (This problem is not ubiquitous, but it is
fairly widespread.)
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As the same officers begin to patrol the same places, so the
relationship between police and offenders becomes increasingly
personalised. In some by no means all) instances, a process of mutual
escalation ensues. Police resources are dragged into the management of a
spiralling conflict.
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There is still work to be done in regard to intimate, sensitive
encounters between officers and civilians – the policing of domestic
violence complaints in particular. The nuances of police conduct can be
crime-inducing or crime-alleviating. Research is required in this
regard.
