NCJ Number
182380
Journal
African Security Review Volume: 8 Issue: 2 Dated: 1999 Pages: 43-59
Date Published
1999
Length
17 pages
Annotation
This article examines issues involved in efforts to form partnerships between the private security industry and the South African Police Service in the effort to prevent crime.
Abstract
Although the National Crime Prevention Strategy provides for partnerships with the private sector under the program on environmental design and maintenance, there are currently no fixed policy guidelines on how these partnerships should be formalized. There are also a number of practical and legislative constraints to the implementation of such partnerships on a formal basis. In addition, there is uncertainty among a number of players over the precise kind of support, cooperation, or service that would be provided to the police by the security industry. Moreover, the sheer size and wide diversity of services provided by the private security industry in South Africa further complicate the matter. Although a number of so-called joint or cooperative partnership initiatives have already been launched between certain companies or individuals and police stations at a local level, these have proceeded without the formal recognition or approval of police management officials and without due acknowledgment of the legal implications of these initiatives. This paper reviews security industry conditions and requests for partnership policing and outlines what the security industry can offer the police. Possible problems of such partnerships are outlined, along with required criteria and standards for partnership policing to be implemented. Areas of concern in partnership policing are reviewed as well.