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November 2005 |
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Seminar reports |
Police Accountability: the Africa Region 14th and 15th October 2005
Organised by CHRI, Africa Office, Accra, Ghana Julie Berg, Institute of Criminology, University of Cape Town.
On the 14th and 15th October the Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative (CHRI) facilitated a meeting in Accra, Ghana for the discussion of police accountability in the Commonwealth Africa region. The meeting was attended by representatives from a number of civil society groups and oversight bodies as well as police officials from Ghana and from a number of other Commonwealth countries including, Australia, India, Kenya, Malawi, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda and the United Kingdom. The meeting consisted of presentations and discussions on the status of oversight in the Commonwealth Africa region and the challenges thereof, with country inputs from various oversight bodies and structures from South Africa, Nigeria, Uganda, Ghana, Tanzania and Kenya. A presentation was also made by the African Policing Civilian Oversight Forum or APCOF and by the Human Rights Unit of the Commonwealth Secretariat. Small group discussions on the process towards reform allowed participants to share various success stories of interaction between police and civil society groups in their countries. The meeting also facilitated the building of co-operation amongst the participants. The meeting was specifically arranged so as to precede the Commonwealth Law Ministers Meeting held from the 17th to the 21st October, also in Accra and thus a concluding statement and recommendations was drafted and submitted to the Law Ministers to encourage continued debates on the topic of police accountability. The communiqué will also be submitted to those attending the Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting in Malta in November. On the evening of the 13th October the CHRI´s 2005 Report entitled Police Accountability: Too Important to Neglect, Too Urgent to Delay was launched at the British Council in Accra. The report is available at: www.humanrightsinitiative.org
Challenges for Policing in the 21st Century: A Global Assessment
Elrena van der Spuy, Institute of Criminology, University of Cape Town This recent conference organised by the International Police Executive Symposium - was held at the Police Academy of the Czech Republic in Prague, 4- 9 September 2005. The proceedings brought together more than 100 police practitioners and scholars from 40 countries and provided an opportunity to engage with both global dynamics and localised realities. In a globalised world order, security agencies confront increasingly similar demands – both internally and externally. Yet the structural diversity underlying the new global order was also apparent as speakers examined the ways in which local dynamics mould security agencies from Australia to Brazil, Japan to Lesotho, Pakistan to the USA, South Africa to Mexico. A wide range of themes were addressed in the nine plenary sessions: the shape and size of cooperation between policing agencies; the challenges of training and recruitment of police personnel; recent developments in the field of police oversight; the role of voluntarism and volunteers in policing; the role of police unionisation in the context of reform; the provision of security in the context of international peace-keeping in troubled zones and, the securitisation of policing policy in the post-9/11 environment. Supplies of Czech beer and local cuisine and a well planned cultural programme ensured that discussions continued outside of the formal setting of the conference. The city of Prague itself provided an imposing architectural setting for the deliberations. A selection of the papers will be published in Police Practice and Research: An International Journal. More details of (past and future) conferences can be viewed at http://www.ipes.info.
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New Publications |
Independent Complaints Directorate Annual Report 2004/2005
The annual report of the ICD is available full text online. Author: Independent Complaints Directorate Published Date: 2005 View online>>>> South African Police Service Station Monitoring Tool
The standardised monitoring tool and report back mechanism will be used when Parliamentary and Provincial Committees responsible for Safety and Security as well as individual members of parliament visit police stations. The purpose of this questionnaire is to facilitate effective oversight by the various parliamentary committees responsible for Safety and Security over policing at station level: provide these committees with useful independent data with which to make recommendations to improve the functioning of policing; compare successes and problems between stations and provinces; measure progress at police stations over time and to ensure more effective collaboration in oversight functions between the Portfolio Committee on Safety and Security of the National Assembly, the Select Committee on Security and Constitutional Affairs of the National Council of Provinces and the Standing Committees within the various provincial legislatures. SAPSSTATIONMONITORINGQUESTIONNAIRE.doc (340 KB) Author: Safety and Security Portfolio Committee Published Date: 2005
Dirty Work of Democracy: A year on the streets with the SAPS
"What does it take to police South Africa’s streets? This is the question Antony Altbeker sets out to answer in The Dirty Work of Democracy, an account of the year he spent observing South Africa’s police officers in action across the country. The twelve months were spent with scores of officers working in police stations stretching from the foothills of the Maluti mountains in the old Transkei to the ganglands that surround the Mother City, from the oak-lined streets of Rosebank to the pot-holed tracks of Ivory Park. Murder, armed robbery, gangsterism and domestic violence: this is a fly-on-the-wall account of how street-level policing works and why it often doesn’t. It offers unique insight into the men and women behind the badge and into the world they confront every shift. Cops are loved and hated, praised and blamed, in equal measure. They experience our country as nobody else does, and see more pain and sadness in a day than many do in a lifetime. Altbeker takes us inside this unique and strange profession, and reports on it with both empathy and reflective distance". Author: Antony Altbeker. The book is available from all major booksellers. Published Date: 2005 Strengthening police oversight in South Africa In 2002, the Open Society Foundation for South Africa (OSF-SA) and the Open Society Justice Initiative proposed a project to examine and strengthen police accountability in South Africa. From the outset, the project attempted to involve the full array of organisations and personnel whose work impinges on police oversight and accountability. An intensive consultative process brought together non-governmental organisations and experts as well as government stakeholders and personnel of police accountability bodies in South Africa. Arising out of this process, the project developed a dual focus on, firstly, strengthening state mechanisms for police oversight and, secondly, bolstering civil society’s own capacity to play a significant role in ensuring that such oversight worked effectively. This report presents the results of the projects and describes the process through which they were produced and presents the project´s main findings on the current state of policing oversight in South African today. Policingreport_screen.pdf (479 KB) Author: Open Society Foundation for South Africa & Open Society Justice Initiative Published Date: 2005 Security governance in South Africa "This article provides a broad overview of the roles played by the various actors in the governance of the security sector, including the executive, parliament and civil society. It examines the main policy frameworks and touches on organisational transformation, because it is impossible to deal with governance in isolation from these issues. Policy processes and the frameworks they give rise to - in particular - are critical for effective governance. This article deals with the defence, safety and security and intelligence fields. A comprehensive overview would need to include the governance of criminal justice and foreign policy. The article does not seek to make an overall evaluation of governance, but to identify achievements, shortfalls and challenges".
Author: Gavin Cawthra. African Security Review 14 (3):95-106 Published Date: 2005 View Online>>>> ISS Oral Submission to the Commission of Inquiry Into the Mandate and Location of the Directorate of Special Operations (Khampepe Commission) The twenty page oral submission submission to the Khampepe Commission of inquiry into the mandate and location of the Directorate of Special Operations is divided into five sections. These are - The rationale for the establishment of the DSO; issues relating to the mandate of the DSO, especially in relation to that of the SAPS; the question of the oversight of the DSO; public perceptions regarding the DSO and the impact a change of institutional home would have on these; and the practical implications of a possible incorporation of the DSO into the SAPS. Author: Institute for Security Studies Published Date: 2005 View Online>>>> |
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Whats New |
New webpages for Angola and Namibia Julie Berg has developed organograms showing policing oversight in Angola and Namibia. The webpages for these countries can be found by using the drop down menu on the top right hand side of the www.policeaccountability.co.za home page under "Select a region". Please let us have feedback on the organograms and send in any publications that promote democratic policing in Angola and Namibia. |
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Recent News |
Safety and Security Portfolio Committee. Private Security Industry Regulatory Authority Safety and Security Portfolio Committee. Independent Complaints Directorate Annual Report briefing continued. Parliamentary Monitoring Group. www.pmg.org.za . 02/11/2005. Safety and Security Portfolio Committee. Launch of SA Police Service Station Monitoring Tool. 08/11/2005. City defends police action against ANC protesters. Safety and Security Portfolio Committee. ICD Annual Report briefing. Woman allegedly raped by police in jail. Obstacle course to trim fat off the police. Death in police custody down nine percent. Victimised woman sues police for R1,2m. SA Police Services: National Secretariat for Safety and Security Annual Reports: Briefings .
Safety and Security Portfolio Committee. Parliamentary Monitoring Group. 12/10/2005. The South African Police Services (SAPS) briefed the Committee on its 2004/2005 annual report. The SAPS stated that overall the police had made many improvements from the previous year and were making a big effort to further improve in the next fiscal year. Most of their targets had been met and it was felt that the police were doing a good job with the resources they had. View details >>>>
Selebi vows to keep tabs on police ´slackers´.
Sheena Adams. Cape Argus. www.iol.co.za . 13/10/2005. A vehicle tracking system expected to put an end to police officers going "AWOL" is one of a number of innovations being introduced by national police commissioner Jackie Selebi to improve police performance. View details >>>> Scorpions: Problems ´inevitable´. Institute for Security Studies submission. www.news24.com 07/10/2005. Problems between the Scorpions and police were among the inevitable challenges of managing a society´s law enforcement, the Institute of Security Studies said on Friday. In a submission to the Khampepe Commission, it said: "Relocating the directorate of special operations (DSO) into the police does not eliminate the problem, it simply shifts the responsibility for dealing with it." View details >>>>
When cops are crooks: Nearly 3 000 SAPS members guilty of crimes in two years.
Sue Segar. The Witness. 07/10/2005. How do we know whether the police officer tasked with protecting us from crime is also not a criminal? This was the question posed by the Freedom Front Plus, following alarming figures released by the Safety and Security Ministry. View details >>>>
Independent Complaints Directorate battles with backlog of complaints against police
Shaun Benton. Bua News. 28/09/2005. Complaints against the police - numbering 5 790 in the past financial year - are still too high for the Independent Complaints Directorate to deal with, while trying to reduce a backlog of complaints inherited from previous years, the directorate said in its annual report tabled in parliament. View details >>>>
South African to lead Interpol.
AFROL NEWS. 08/10/2005.
Delegates at the Interpol General Assembly have elected Jackie Selebi, National Commissioner of the South African Police Service and the first African ever, as the global police organisation´s new President. Mr Selebi pledged to lift the Caribbean and Africa on Interpol´s agenda during his upcoming leadership term. View details >>>>
SADC cross border operation trainees ready to participate in Operation Rachel.
http://www.info.gov.za . Joseph Ngobeni. 30/09/2005. The Southern African Development Community (SADC) today boasted with twenty-six (26) successfully trained police members after completing a month-long training course in cross border firearm related and firearm destruction operations. These members will leave on 2 October 2005 for Mozambique to participate in a follow-up Operation Rachel exercise to gain hands on experience. View details >>>>
Zimbabwe:
Zim cops arrest activists.
www.news24.com . 08/11/2005. Harare - Police in Zimbabwe have picked up at least two trade union activists ahead of planned protest marches set for Tuesday, the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) claimed in a statement. View details >>>>
Mugabe´s police and vendors in running battles.
Michael Hartnack. Cape Times. 07/10/2005. Harare: Police armed with batons and riot shields fought running battles with street traders this week in a clampdown in the capital´s southern townships, news reports said yesterday. View details>>>>
Nigeria:
DRC-NIGERIA: 11 policemen suspended over sex abuse allegations in DR Congo. IRIN NEWS. www.irinnews.org 27/09/2005. Nigeria has suspended 11 policemen, including a senior officer, suspected of sexual abuse while serving as UN peacekeepers in the Democratic Republic of Congo. View details >>>> |
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