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Costly cops?
Effective policing and the
SAPS budget
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The SAPS is requesting government to increase its budget so that it can afford to employ more officers. This article looks at some of the trade-offs that have been made in the development of the personnel policies that impact on this decision. It poses the question: Are South African police officers too expensive?
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Sitting around the average dinner party table in crime-conscious Johannesburg, it is not difficult to get agreement on a few core gripes about policing policy in South Africa. A popular consensus would hold that South Africa has too few police officers, that they are badly paid and that government is not doing enough to deal with the problem of crime and insecurity.
As with all popular beliefs, there is a core of truth contained in these charges. It is true, for instance, that on some measures - particularly in relation to the levels of crime - South Africa is relatively under-policed.
Too few police per murder
As readers of the Crime Index will know, in relation to population levels South Africa is not all that poorly policed, particularly when compared to developing countries (see 'The thin blue line', Crime Index volume 4 number 2, 2000). However, there are, roughly speaking, six people (police officers and civilians) employed by the SAPS for every murder in South Africa. By contrast, in Singapore in 1994 there were almost 630 police officers per recorded murder. Even other less developed countries have more officers per recorded murder than does South Africa (Figure 1).
Figure 1: Number of police officers per recorded murder
Given these statistics, it would be rash to claim that South Africa is not, in fact, under-policed. The National Commissioner's appeal for more money to employ more police officers (Business Day, November 5, 2001) is, therefore, not unreasonable. Indeed, even if it remains an open question whether the number of police officers affects the number of crimes committed, it is almost certainly true that the number of police officers available to the state affects the flow of cases through the criminal justice system.
Even those who question whether more police bring down crime levels may reasonably believe that the number of police officers does affect the quantity and quality of completed investigations, and, therefore, impacts on the number of criminals who do not get away with their crimes. Unfortunately there is no way to predict how many more criminals would be processed through the criminal justice system for every additional 1000 police officers employed by the SAPS. Nor is anyone able to reliably estimate the number of crimes prevented by the successful prosecution of criminals.
Trade-off: more police, or higher salaries?
It is impossible, however, to separate the issue of the number of police officers employed, from the issue of how much police officers should earn. The matter of numbers and salaries are intertwined because - like any service industry where personnel costs take up a significant part of a more-or-less predetermined budget - the only way to employ more people is to contain average personnel costs. And, even where a personnel budget does grow, there is always a trade-off between increasing salaries and increasing numbers of employees.
In the SAPS this trade-off has, over the past seven years, been resolved in favour of increasing salaries. Indeed, so fast have salaries grown that personnel numbers have had to fall. Based on data from the 2001/02 and previous budgets, it is clear that from 1995/6 to the end of the current medium term budget (2003/04), the SAPS personnel budget will have risen by a fraction less than 100%. At the same time, on average, salaries will have risen by 130%. The difference is made up by a fall in police personnel numbers (Figure 2).
Figure 2: Personnel policy in the SAPS (1995/6 = 100)
From 1995/6 to 2001/2, the average remuneration received by police officers grew at an annual average of 12.5% from about R53 100 to about R100 400 per year. This compares very well with an annual inflation rate of 6.5%. This growth is a result of three factors:
- The rapid rise through the ranks by junior officers, without their being replaced at the bottom.
- The general increases received by all civil servants (as well as the special dispensation for police officers announced in this year's budget).
- The rapid increase in expenditure on medical benefits, the costs of which have risen faster than inflation.
The most obvious benefits of the increased remuneration for SAPS members are accrued to the members themselves. Whether or not this translates into benefits for the public by creating a service that attracts, retains and better motivates officers is, however, a contested matter.
Given the high levels of unemployment in South Africa, attracting top quality matriculants is probably not entirely dependent on high salaries. Whether higher salaries boost morale and retain skills is an open question.
Conclusion
It is clear that a police service of a size adequate to South Africa's needs, and remunerated at current salary levels, is beyond the means of the fiscus. Indeed, even the 38000 extra police officers requested by the SAPS would, within a few years of their recruitment, be costing well over R4.5 billion a year, without taking into account the non-personnel costs associated with their accommodation, equipment and training. That is about 25% more than the projected budget for 2003/04. This is money that would, to put it mildly, be very hard to find.
Antony Altbeker
Graduate School of Public and Development Management
altbeker.a@pdm.wits.ac.za
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