Factors inhibiting the reduction of policeable crime in Gauteng Province

Abstract

Zinn (2010) points out that despite emphasis and police effort to deal with and contain business robberies, house robberies and car hijacking, these crimes increased nationally by 22 per cent in the 2008/09 financial year. Between 2015/16 and 2016/17 financial years, aggravated robberies went up by 8 per cent (SAPS Annual Report, 2016/17). The question is, 'what inhibits the reduction of policeable crime in Gauteng?' To answer this question, we developed an interpretive and conceptual framework to be published in a peer reviewed journal, but whose summary we share in this paper. Based on this proposed research framework, this paper shares some empirical evidence on factors that inhibit the reduction of policeable crime in Gauteng Province. The research results and findings show that South African Police Service (SAPS) leadership in Gauteng Province still rely on traditional forms of policing that have failed to adapt to strategies crime perpetrators are using. Hough and others (2008) have argued that for an organisation to be successful, its strategy should be aligned with its environment. Further, the inability to adapt explains why the South African Police Service in Gauteng Province lacks a credible strategy, leading to management inefficiency save for a few police clusters whose commanders have introduced credible strategies limited to their clusters only. Such a status quo is attributable to a lacking Provincial leadership, if not national. As Newham (2015, p.43) sums it up, there is a "serial crisis of top management in the police, which has started to take its toll on the effectiveness and public credibility of the South African Police Service".