Public confidence in the police in Mankweng Zone1, Limpopo Province

Abstract

This study sought to measure the public’s level of confidence in the police in Mankweng, Unit- A. The study focused on public confidence in the police and reasons why it is of such importance, lack of public trust in the police, and aspects that the police should give attention to in serving the public. The study also focused on factors undermining public confidence in the police, police behaviour, and strategies to improve public confidence. The researcher used a quantitative, cross-sectional research design to evaluate the community’s level of confidence with their police. Probability multi-stage cluster sampling was used to select participants. The sample size comprised of 177 participants. A fixed-response questionnaire was written in English and translated to Sepedi because the community in Mankweng Zone 1, consists almost entirely of semi-black people belonging to the Sepedi Language group. The study measured professional fairness as the attribute of treatment and quality of decision making, and when combined the answers created a procedural fairness index of Cronbach’s Alpha = .7; and mean inter-item correlation of = .394. A relatively large percentage of the respondents were negative about the attribute of making quality decisions and treatment from the police. 75,2% of the sample reckoned the police are very ineffective in fighting crime. The study found that procedural fairness judgements play a crucial part and individuals focus strongly on police competence and fear of crime.