PERCEPTIONS OF THE POLICE

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Published in Crime in Pretoria
Results of a City Victim Survey

If crime is to be reduced, it must be reported to the police so that appropriate action can be taken. As discussed above, reporting depends on several factors. Of these, the police-victim relationship is central. The general attitudes of the public towards the police, and the perceived effectiveness of the police and the courts in processing criminal cases, recovering property and convicting offenders, shapes the police-victim relationship. As such, this attitudinal information is essential for effective policing. As the main ‘client’ of the police, public opinion indicates what people want from the police and thus how their service could be improved.

The victim survey asked people in Pretoria about their experience when they reported crime to the police, as well as whether they thought the police were successfully controlling crime in their areas of residence. In each instance, respondents were asked to explain their attitudes towards police performance.

Victims were asked whether they were satisfied with the way the police dealt with their report. Few were: only 36 per cent of respondents had positive views of the police. Such high levels of dissatisfaction are not restricted to Pretoria, however. Similar views were recorded in the Johannesburg, Durban and Cape Town city surveys. Even the International Crime Victim Survey found that globally, less than half of the victims who reported their cases to the police in 1996 were satisfied with the response, although satisfaction was much higher in Western countries than in developing countries.²⁴

While such generalisations suggest that the police are not regarded favourably around the world, the treatment of victims does vary according to who the victims are, where they live and the type of crime they report:

In Pretoria, African victims were much more likely than white victims to be dissatisfied with the police. While 77 per cent of Africans were unhappy, less than half of white victims (45 per cent) shared this negative view of the police when reporting an offence. Opinions of the police also varied according to where victims live. Victims living in the suburbs (who are largely white) had more positive views of police performance after reporting a crime: 48 per cent were satisfied compared with only 23 per cent of those living in townships (who are largely African) (Figure 11). These trends, across categories of both race and residence, suggest that despite significant changes in the police since 1994, policing remains highly uneven in former white and black communities.

Figure 11: Satisfaction among city residents with police service when reporting
a crime





The police (and the public) do not treat reports of all crime types in the same way. Victims of property crimes in Pretoria who notified the police of the offences, were more satisfied with the service they received than victims of violent crimes (Figure 12). This suggests that the victims of serious crimes such as murder and rape, do not necessarily receive preferential treatment from the police. It is possible that the police concentrate on those crimes which will most likely be solved. Cases such as assault and rape are often more difficult for the police to pursue, since victims apparently frequently withdraw charges due to fear of reprisals, the sensitivity of such cases, and the fact that evidence is often harder to collect. Also, victims of violent crime are much more likely to be African, and also more likely to be dissatisfied with the service they received from the police when reporting crime.

Figure 12: Satisfaction among victims of particular crimes with police service when reporting an offence

Victims’ reasons for their dissatisfaction illustrate the main problems with the way the police respond to reports of crime. The most common complaint was that the police did not investigate the case (42 per cent). One-third of victims (accounting for those who were satisfied with the police response), said they received professional and helpful service. The remaining quarter said that the police were unprofessional in their treatment of victims, which includes point-of-contact behaviour, lack of follow-up and being unhelpful.

Views differed for victims living in different parts of Pretoria. Suburban residents were more likely to be positive about the police than people living elsewhere in the metropolitan area: 42 per cent of people in suburbs said the police were professional and helpful when they reported an offence. Only 20 per cent of township residents shared this view. Victims living in townships were generally less complimentary about the police. Most were concerned with the lack of investigation, which was mentioned by 54 per cent of victims in these areas. In comparison, only 35 per cent of people living in the suburbs raised this issue. A similar breakdown of negative and positive views of the police was recorded among white victims (who largely live in the suburbs) and African victims (who largely live in townships).

The varying responses of victims across crime types again suggest a link between satisfaction with the police and their ability to investigate a case. The victims of violent crimes, including murder, assault, and sexual assault, were much more likely to complain about the lack of investigation than victims of other crimes

Figure 13.Perceptions of victims of particular crimes about police service when reporting an offence

Those who reported car theft and hijacking, by contrast, were most satisfied with the service they received from the police: 40 per cent and 45 per cent, respectively, responded positively. Not surprisingly, given the sensitivity of the crime and the generally poor state of police-victim relations in South Africa, 40 per cent of sexual assault victims said the police were unprofessional and treated victims badly. This problem is by far the most serious for these victims - far fewer complaints of this nature were made by the victims of other crime.

The more accurate perceptions of the police are those based on actual experience, such as those gained by victims when reporting a crime (covered above). More general opinions are shaped by people’s feelings of safety where they live and work, as well as their assessment of the police’s ability to provide safety and reduce crime. Not all these views are based on contact with the police - indeed questions were asked of both victims and non-victims. These perceptions are nevertheless important, since they indicate general levels of confidence in the police and the public’s willingness to participate in and co-operate with the official channels of criminal justice.

When asked whether they thought the police were doing a good job at controlling crime in the area where they live, only 29 per cent of the people interviewed in Pretoria said ‘yes’. Half of the respondents said the police were doing a poor job, and a significant proportion (21 per cent) had no opinion, which limits a definitive assessment of public opinion on the issue.

Although confidence in the police is low, more people in Pretoria think the police have crime under control (29 per cent) than do people in the other metropolitan areas of the country. In Cape Town, 23 per cent of people were of this opinion, while lower proportions were recorded in the Durban and Johannesburg victim surveys. In Pretoria, the opinions of victims (who are more likely to have had direct contact with the police), are less favourable than those of the general population: 25 per cent of victims said the police were doing a good job compared with 32 per cent of non-victims.

Confidence in the police’s ability is generally low, but trends vary across the Pretoria metropolitan area. People living in the suburbs were more satisfied with police performance than those in other parts of the city: 33 per cent of people were positive about the police’s ability to control crime in the suburbs. Less than a quarter of people living in the inner city, townships and informal settlements thought this applied to the areas where they live.

Figure 14 Assessment of police performance in area of residence

This again suggests that the effectiveness of the police is uneven, largely as a result of uneven resource distribution between former white and black areas. Those living in parts of Pretoria formerly reserved for white people enjoy better service delivery from the police and a greater sense of safety than those in the former black townships and informal settlements. The ability of the police to make people feel safe in the inner city also appears limited.

People were asked to explain their views on police performance. Negative attitudes were most commonly attributed to the police being unprofessional and having a poor attitude towards victims (34 per cent). Other reasons were that the police respond too slowly to calls and lack a visible presence (14 per cent). Few people - given police claims and media coverage around the issues - attributed the police’s limited success to a lack of resources (4 per cent) or corruption (10 per cent).

Reasons for particular opinions about police performance are remarkably similar for victims and non-victims, with two exceptions. Victims of crime in Pretoria were more likely to think the police were unprofessional and treat victims badly (41 per cent) than were non-victims (29 per cent). They were also less inclined to say that the police were doing a good job by responding quickly to calls (27,5 per cent) than were non-victims (39 per cent). These variations may result from victims’ actual experiences in dealing with the police.

People living in different parts of Pretoria also had different views on the nature of police performance in their areas. Those in informal settlements and townships were more inclined to think the police are corrupt than were residents of the inner city and suburbs. Eighteen per cent and 14 per cent of people living in informal settlements and townships, respectively, gave this reason, compared with 7,5 per cent of people living in the suburbs.

Figure 15 Views of police performance in area of residence

Police response time and visibility are also likely to be poorer in townships, the inner city and informal settlements than in the suburbs. Between 20 per cent and 24 per cent of residents in these three areas said the police were slow to respond, compared with only 10 per cent of people living in the suburbs. Similarly, those in the suburbs were more likely to say the police were doing a good job because they were visible and responded quickly (39 per cent) than were informal settlement residents (18 per cent). Since few people thought the police are under-resourced, the data suggest that policing problems - according to the public - relate more to the management and allocation of resources, than with actual shortages.