The structure of South African police: Towards a single police service

Abstract The South African crime statistics released by the police minister for the first three months of 2021 reaffirmed the alarming crime problems in the country. Although, the statistics as released by the minister seemingly opined that certain crimes such as contact related crimes, property-related crimes to be declining. Other crimes such as, Truck hijacking, commercial crime, attempted murder, murder, robbery at residential premises, carjacking, robbery at non-residential premises, bank robbery and others are on the increase. This article argues that the high rate of crime in South Africa cannot be severed from the disjointed functions given to public law enforcement establishments in the country. It is argued the public policing agencies in South Africa, such as the Municipal police, Traffic police and the SAPS have the common objective of crime control against law breakers. The central argument is that the alarming rate of crime in the country is essentially because the efforts of these law enforcement agencies are not properly coordinated into a central command structure with uniform strategy and tactics. The main objective of this article is to propose a centralisation of police agencies (Municipal, Traffic and South African Police Services) which will be effective in dealing with crime in the South African communities. This article adopted qualitative research methodology. Twenty participants were purposefully selected. The article makes recommendations, emanating from the research findings.


ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Hlupheka Michael Mabasa is a doctoral degree candidate in Policing from Tshwane University of Technology (South Africa) and formerly an officer of the South African Police Service. Mabasa H Michael used a qualitative research method, articulating on the propriety the South African policing services should be centralised. He argued that such centralisation would bring among others, a reduction in the running cost and improve efficiency in the overall performance of the policing agencies in the country Adewale A. Olutola is an Associate Professor of Police Science (Policing). He is a postgraduate supervisor in the Department of Safety and Security Management at Tshwane University of Technology (South Africa). Adewale Olutola is a member cum editorial Board member of Criminological and Victimological Society of Africa. Olutola acts as external examiner to several Universities in the areas of Police Science and Law. His research focuses on legal issues, policing, crime prevention and comparative criminal justice systems

PUBLIC INTEREST STATEMENT
No country in today's world is exempted from crime and victimisation. Where people feel safe, most likely the crime rate will be lower. In any community where the crime rates are high, it is most likely that the members of such community to feel unsafe. The argument in this paper among others is that there is no need to have Municipal Police, Traffic Police and South African Police Services. Public policing agencies should be centralised to allow for more efficiency in performance and resources management. Tables one and two in the article confirm the high rates of crime in South Africa, with lower safety level. Whereas safety level is higher in other countries with centralised policing with lower crime rates. Many participants in this qualitative study also agreed with centralisation of public policing agencies.

Introduction
Policing encompasses a wide range of services, which can be assigned to different levels of government. Any style policing service adopted by a country has its related merits and demerits. The decision to adopt a single or multi policing systems is an important policy issue for countries around the world (Lowatcharin, 2016). Ramoroka (2013) noted that crime has increasingly become an intricate part of most South Africa's communities. In responding to the dangerous dimension of the rates of crime in South Africa, the National Planning Committee in the year 2012 proposed a national development plan (NDP). The vision of (National Planning Commission (NPC), 2012) is among others to create safe communities in South Africa. National Planning Commission (NPC) (2012, p. 387) proposed that in 2030, people living in South Africa would feel safe at home, at school and at work, and enjoy community life free of fear. Women walk freely in the streets and children play safely outside. The police service shall be well resourced and professional, staffed by highly skilled officers who value their work, serve the community, safeguard lives and property without discrimination, protect the people against violence, and respect the rights to equality and justice. Nevertheless, Baloyi (2017) opined that, at the pace crime problem is being handled in the Republic of South Africa, the goal of eliminating crime will be achieved in 2059 instead of in 2030, as envisioned by the National Development Plan (National Planning Commission (NPC), 2012).
Few of the aims of a centralised police service will be to align the conditions of service within the of law enforcement agencies, to create more efficiency in crime control mechanisms, ensure mobility of employees and to promote stability in employment. Employees can transfer service within the single or unified law enforcement cluster. The employees should not suffer any reduction in salary, and their services would be regarded as continuous and such opportunity will be in line with the principle within the Labor Relations Act No. 66 of 1995, that the conditions of service of transferring staff may not become less favorable. The ruling political party is South Africa, African National Congress 52 nd Conference Resolution of 2007 on Peace and Stability suggested the establishment of a single and centralised police service, without elaborating on what it entailed.
Similar to the proposition in this paper was the 2008 draft on Public Administration Management Bill (known as draft legislation for a single public service), which sought to build a multi-skilled and mobile workforce, to deliver integrated services where the need existed. Rauch et al. (2001) suggested that the idea was to harmonize the conditions under which government employees worked, in whatever department, or whatever the conditions of service, within the sphere of government. It is our contention that police or law enforcements are part of public service and if such was proposed for public service, the same merits of unification of law enforcements agencies will bring much coherence and effectiveness to security cluster. It would be much easier to move skills from other spheres of law enforcement (Montesh, 2010(Montesh, , 2011.

The South African police service
The establishment of the national police for the republic of South Africa was enabled by the provisions of the 1996 Constitution and the 1995 South Africa Police Act (Act 68 of 1995). Section 206 of the 1996 Constitution provides that the national police service must be structured to function in the national, provincial, and where appropriate, local spheres of government. The Constitution states further that there should be "political responsibility of a member of the Cabinet who must be responsible for policing and must determine national policing policy after consulting the provincial governments and taking into account the policing needs and priorities". These core responsibilities are unanimously linked to the National Development Plan (NDP) and the SAPS Code of Conduct ensuring that "All people in South Africa safe".
The South African Police Service Act (N0 68 of 1995) provides for the establishment, organisation, regulation, and control of the South African Police Service, and for matters in connection therewith. The budget of the Service is derived entirely from the national budget. Although there are provincial MECs (Member of the Executive Council) for Safety and Security, political accountability for the SAPS rests largely with the National Minister of Safety and Security (Rauch et al., 2001;SAPS, 2020).
Policing in a country can either be decentralised or centralised. Decentralization refers to, general, the transfer of authority, responsibility, and resources from a tier of government (e.g., central, federal, national, regional, state) to other entities, such as: (1) field units of the higher government ministries or agencies; (2) subordinate levels of government; (3) semi-autonomous public authorities or corporations; (4) area-wide, regional, or functional authorities; and (5) private, non-profit, or non-governmental organizations (Lowatcharin, 2016;Rondinelli et al., 1983). The police station area is generally the smallest organising unit in the SAPS, although some stations have further divided their areas into smaller "sectors (Dumisani, 2004)".
The Civilian Secretariat for Police ("the Civilian Secretariat") serves as technical advisor to the Minister of Police ("the Minister") to demonstrate a civilian oversight on the governance, service delivery and resourcing of the South African Police Service ("the Police Service").
The Civilian Secretariat is mandated to perform, inter-alia the following: • Providing the Minister with policy advice and research support, • Developing departmental policy through qualitative and evidence-based research, • Providing civilian oversight of the Police Service through monitoring and evaluating overall police performance, • Mobilising role-players, stakeholders and partners outside the department through engagements on crime prevention and other policing matters, and • Providing other support services to the Minister in pursuit of achieving his/her mandate (Dumisani, 2004-12;Rauch et al., 2001;SAPS, 2013).
A centralized or national police system refers to a police system in which the national government is responsible for all law enforcement. Examples of countries that use this system are Ireland and Thailand (Lowatcharin & Stallmann, 2020). A decentralized police system refers to a police system in which responsibility for law enforcement is shared by various levels of government with specific assignments of duties and defined coordination, for example, the US system. Police systems in Brazil and Venezuela were decentralized in 1988 and 1999, respectively (Johnson et al., 2012). Mexico moved toward more centralized policing in 2010 (Esparza, 2012). Esparza and Ugues (2020) noted that centralisation and professionalisation mitigate the impact of crime victimisation and police corruption on the public opinion of the police in Mexico. It was argued that police forces that are local, decentralised policing are likely to be unprofessional and will be less trusted, viewed as less effective than their more centralised and professional counterparts of state and federal police (Esparza & Ugues, 2020). In general, decentralization is used as an overarching term defined as: the transfer of authority, responsibility, and resources from a higher government (Esparza, 2012).
The SAPS was formed after democratic independence in 1994, by the amalgamation of the South African Police Force and ten homelands' police services-Transkei, Bophuthatswana, Ciskei, Venda, Gazankulu, KaNgwane, KwaNdebele, KwaZulu, Lebowa and QwaQwa. In terms of the 1995 South African Police Act, as amended by the South African Police Service Amendment Act No. 41 of 1997, as well as Section 199 (1) of the 1996 Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, "the security services of the Republic consist of a single defence force, a single police service and any intelligence services established in terms of the Constitution". Section 199 (5) further states that the "security services must act, and must teach, and require their members to act, in accordance with the Constitution and the law, including customary international law and international agreements binding on the Republic (Montesh, 2010).
Section 214 of the South African Interim Constitution (Act 200 of 1993) made provision for the establishment of police service, in terms of an Act of Parliament, "which shall be structured at both national and provincial levels and shall function under the directives of the national government as well as the various provincial governments." In addition, Section 214 made provision for the "establishment and maintenance of uniform standards of policing at all levels regarding-(i) the exercise of police powers.
(ii) the recruitment, appointment, promotion, and transfer of members of the service.
(iv) the training, conduct and conditions of service of members of the service; (v) the general management, control, maintenance, and provisioning of the service.
(vi) returns, registers, records, documents, forms and correspondence . . . " Section 215 of the Interim Constitution also created the powers and functions of the police service as follows: • prevention of crime • investigation of any offence or alleged offence • maintenance of law and order • preservation of the internal security of the Republic From the provisions of these two sections (214 and 215), we argue that the interim Constitution clearly created the impression that only one policing agency, namely the South African Police Service, should exist, because there is no indication of any other policing agencies. Nevertheless, neither the Interim Constitution nor the 1996 Constitution forbids the creation of other police agencies in South Africa. Therefore, Berg (2003) in his research considered the applicable laws regulating private security company in South Africa.

Crime in south africa
Crime in South Africa is disturbing (Gould, 2014). In table 1 and as indicated by the police minister in the fourth-quarter crime statistics for 2020-2021, the minister indicated that even though overall crime declined by 8.5%, the rate of murder and attempted murder rose by 8.4% and 8.7%, respectively. It was highlighted that 4,976 people were killed in the first three months of 2021, which is 387 more people killed, as compared to the same months in the previous financial year. This includes 24 police officers murdered. The police minister said Eastern Cape and the Kwa-Zulu Natal provinces were of concern. Both the provinces recorded double-digit increases, standing at 21.5% and 16.9%, respectively. It was further indicated that 1,327 people died in the places of residence of either the victim or the perpetrator, including the homes of family friends and neighbours. Furthermore, as released by the Minister, while there has been a decline in sexual offenses cases, 9,518 people were raped between January and March, a decrease of 387 cases as compared to the same period of the previous year. Minister Bheki Cele emphasised that the sexual violence perpetuated against women in this country is very disgraceful (Businesstech, 2021).

Table 1: minister bheki cele releases crime statistics for fourth quarter of 2020/21
In Table 2, we compared six countries among which are South Africa, United States of America, United Kingdom, Japan, France, and Thailand. Save for South Africa, other countries in Table 2 are using single or centralised policing model. One could see that in the crime index column, South Africa has the highest crime index at 77.29 and the lowest safety index at 22.71. In the same token, the data The summary implication of the above is that South Africa has the highest crime rate and the most unsafe among the six countries.

The 1996 constitution of South Africa
Section 205 (1) of the 1996 Constitution of the Republic of South Africa states: "the national police service must be structured to function in the national, provincial and, where appropriate, local sphere of government". The 1996 South African Constitution in section 205 (3) makes provision for the duties of the police as follows: "to prevent, combat and investigate crime, to maintain public order, to protect and secure the inhabitants of the Republic and their property, and to uphold and enforce the law".
Although, the 1996 Constitution creates a "general" overall police service for the country but does not exclude or forbid other policing agencies. It is clear from the above mentioned sections, that there could be other policing agencies, such as the provincial traffic, municipal and metropolitan police agencies. The 1993 Interim Constitution and the 1996 Constitution clearly recognize the police service as the national police. Rauch et al. (2001) traces the origins and development of municipal policing in South Africa from the infamous "municipal police" in apartheid South Africa's townships, to the respected Durban City Police-a self-styled British constabulary that operated in the city from 1854 to 2000 when it was replaced by the Durban Metropolitan Police Service, established under the South African Police Service Amendment Act No 83 of 1998 which allows any municipality to apply for the establishment of a municipal police service.

Centralised and decentralised police/public service
Centralized refers to "a police system in which there is a national police agency or police institution which is centrally commanded and controlled through a vertical chain of command and such police institution has unlimited jurisdiction throughout the territory of the country" (UNAFEI, 2003). Decentralised refers to "a police system in a federal, union, or similar form of political or constitutional arrangement, where the responsibility for law and order and consequently the operational control, management, and superintendence of the police agencies or institutions is the exclusive responsibility of the governments of the states, or provinces; components of the federal or union arrangement as the case may be" (UNAFEI, 2003).  provisions of sections 221 (3) allowed for the establishment of municipal police services with one of the functions to be crime prevention and the policing of local government byelaws. Also, the Road Traffic Management (RTMC) (Act N0 20 of 1999 as amended) provides that the objective of traffic patrol should be to prevent occurrence of road traffic offences (Chapter 14 of the RTMC Act 20 of 1999). This same function of crime prevention (as earlier indicated) is a mandate given to SAPS members by sections 205 (3) of the 1996 Constitution and Chapter 12, section 64D(e) of the South African Police Services Act 68 of 1995), but each of these public policing agencies has a disjointed approach of pursuing their mandates, they received different training, allocated disproportionate resources, and report to different command structures. This uncoordinated approach defeats the very purpose for which they were established, which summarily is crime control. The above specifically mentioned policing agencies (SAPS, Municipal Policing & Traffic Police), jointly and severally rely on the provisions of the Criminal Procedure Act 51 of 1977 (as amended) to search the person or premises of the offender (section 23), to arrest offender (section 39) and to use minimum force where necessary (section 49).

Statement of the problem
With the democratic dispensation of 1994 in South Africa, fundamental changes became crucial in the organisation and practice of police work. The apartheid state, particularly the police service, was undemocratic, and undermined the basic rights of non-white races (Kynoch, 2016). Therefore, the democratic government set its face on entirely new national policing agencies. It was necessary to avoid possibility of lower standards of policing, jurisdictional confusion, partisan, and discriminatory policing, as well as the creation of ethnic or regional militias (Ellis, 1998, p. 267).

Objectives of the study
Since coming to power in 1994, the post-apartheid government has introduced credible policies, such as the 1996 National Crime Prevention Strategy, which intention was, among others, to address the root causes of crime, build and integrate a comprehensive policy framework to guide various government departments, as well as shape and rationalize the way in which government utilize scarce financial resources, introduced community participation in crime fighting and deal with transnational crimes (Simpson & Rauch, 1999); White Paper on Safety and Security, 1998). The number of police personnel was also increased and instilled with conduct consistent with the Constitution. It is important to note that crime has increased despite these interventions. Moult (2019) recalled the unacceptable level of criminality in South Africa when he noted in June 2019, of a Durban court which sentenced a 25-year-old man to almost 300 years in prison for a catalogue of offences and in the same period Cape Town reported murder jumped by 18% in just one month necessitated by the city's rampant gang problem. Singh (2018) notes that decades after the collapse of apartheid, South Africa, has failed to effect a change in the system of criminal justice which is immediately capable of responding to the challenges of crime.
Therefore, the following are the objectives of this study: • To explore common obligation of policing agencies in South Africa (Municipal Police, Traffic police and South African Police Service) • To investigate whether a single/centralised police service can be a remedy to the problem of crime, by looking at other countries that have centralised structure.
• To advocate for a coordinated police service that will be effective and efficient in dealing with crime in South Africa.

Research questions
The following are research questions which emanated from the above research objectives: (a) The common mandates of the public policing agencies in South Africa, is crime control?
(b) Has a centralised police service succeeded anywhere in the world?
The above research questions are guided by a literature review and informed by the research design and methodology.

Justification of the study
A single police service for South Africa would place the Municipal Police, Traffic Police and SAPS under the command and control of the National Police Commissioner. This would help to enhance the functioning of the police service, streamline command, and control, and ensure uniform standards. It would enable the police service to effectively deal with crime-which is prevalent among communities in South Africa.
The researcher notes that the available resources do not permit the vast duplication of functions, units and expenses incurred in replicating different training and other support institutions for the national police service and numerous metro and municipal divisions (Marais, 2003). By the provisions of Chapter 12 and sections 64 of the South African Police Service Act, the municipal police are under the authority of Minister of Transport and whereas, SAPS members are under the direct authority of the Minister of Police.
In countries where policing agencies are fragmented, the standard of training and other support services are likely to diminish because of a lack of resources. A centralised policing agency such as applicable to Ireland and Thailand is thus easy to manage, because it consists of one set of rules and regulations, as well as single command and control, methods, and procedures; hence, this has the potential to reduce crime rates. Landström et al. (2020) shares these assertions, and that the one framework would ensure an effective, competent, and accountable police force which is national police force that is obliged by law to subject itself to national accountability. Such a framework would ensure the high standard of professionalism, impartiality, and accountability that all South Africans desire.

Scope of the study
The study is not limited to analysing secondary sources that have already been published, pertaining to the topic. Questions were posed to the 20 participants. This is a potential contribution of this study, which led to specific findings. This article is not about investigating the sources or causes of crime, but specifically exploring specific South African Policing structure (as listed above), as institution mandate to deal with the problem of crime. The researcher thus investigates to what extent this structure has succeeded in dealing with the primary obligation of crime control.

Methodology
The study used a qualitative research methodology. It consists of a set of interpretative, material practices that makes the world visible. Qualitative research paradigm, include field notes, conversations, interviews, photographs, recordings, and memos, among others. It involves an interpretative, naturalistic approach to the world. This means that qualitative researchers study things in their natural settings, attempting to make sense of, or interpret, phenomena in terms of the meanings people bring to them (Denzin & Lincoln, 2015). The research in this article attempted to know the views of the participant relating to the issue of centralisation of policing vis-à-vis crime rate.
Primary sources comprised all transcripts of the interviews with the 20 participants. Secondary data for this paper include reviewed literature, journal articles, newspapers, annual reports and enabling legislation relevant to the research topic.

Research population, sample size and procedure
The researcher targeted members of the SAPS, Municipal Police, Traffic Police in the Gauteng and Northwest Provinces and relevant NGOs who have in-depth knowledge about the research topic. Twenty open-ended questions were posed to the target groups, with a view to soliciting responses about the topic of this study. This group was purposively targeted, as the researcher attempted to acquire quality and informed responses to the topic Wengraf (2001) notes that a criminal justice researcher should not haphazardly but purposively select research participants. Mack et al. (2014) emphasize that open-ended questions could evoke responses that are meaningful and culturally salient to the participants, unanticipated by the researcher, as well as rich and explanatory in nature. The researcher contends that this increased the validity of the findings, as the data was acquired from participants with practical knowledge about the topic. More importantly, the sampling used in this study was purposive sampling (Wengraf, 2001). Tongco (2007) defines purposive sampling, also known as judgment sampling, as a deliberate choice of an informant, due to the qualities the informant possesses. The researcher decides what needs to be known and sets out to find people who can and are willing to provide the information by virtue of knowledge or experience. In analysis, purposive sampling relies on the judgment of the researcher when it comes to selecting the units (for example, people, cases/organizations, events, pieces of data) that are to be studied. Usually, the sample being investigated is quite small, especially when compared with probability sampling techniques; hence the researcher's sample was twenty (20) participants.
This study relied on a non-probability purposive sampling technique to select 20 (n = 20) participants. The sample size was restricted to 20 participants owing to data saturation (Hennink & Kaiser, 2019, p. 3). Hennink and Kaiser (2019, p. 3) argued that saturation is not a casting stone. Saturation happens in qualitative interviews when subsequent participants begin to repeat similar answers as to those already interviewed. Henning and Kaiser contented that in one study, saturation could be achieved at 17 interviews and in another study, saturation might be accomplished at 14 interviews. Boddy (2016, p. 426) indicated that samples as low as 12 would be apt for data saturation among relatively homogeneous populations in qualitative study. The contention of the authors of this article is that participants/interviewees in this study belonged to a homogenous population of policing agencies. Whereas on the other hand, but by the same token, Burns and Grove (2001, p. 377) opine that in quantitative sampling, there are no hard or fast rules about the sample size, but a sample should have at least 30 respondents. Needless to add that this article is not quantitative, but qualitative.

Data collection
An interview technique was utilised in collecting data from the study participants. The technique was needed to explore participants' thoughts about the research topic. Each interview was audio recorded with the consent of the participants, and each interview lasted for an average of 40 minutes. Some of the semi-structured interview questions included: "Lack of centralised policing command structure contributes to the high crime rate in South Africa? Please explain., "What are the advantages of a single or centralised police service or agency?" and "What are the disadvantages of the current policing structures or agencies in South Africa?

Data analysis
Textual analysis was employed after data collection. McKee (2003) defines textual analysis as a methodology and data-gathering process to those researchers who wish to understand the ways in which members of various cultures and subcultures make sense of who they are, and how they fit into the world in which they live. The responses are therefore analyzed through thematic analysis of verbatim. Data from the interviews were analysed using thematic coding. Coding was completed after one of the authors conducted an initial review of the data to identify resonating themes. Thereafter, a thorough analysis of the interview transcript was conducted to collate relevant data in line with the identified themes.

Ethical considerations
This study complies with research ethics regarding issues such as anonymity, confidentiality, and transparency. Importantly, the researcher first sought the authority to gather data from three key institutions of law enforcement agencies (SAPS, Metro Police and Traffic Police), as well as the NGO, which was duly granted. The researcher also received clearance from the TUT Faculty of Humanities Research Committee on Ethics (FCRE). All the participants were informed of the reason for the study and what it intended to achieve.

Findings
The study proposed to achieve specific objectives enumerated above. These objectives are linked with the research questions, all originated from the problem statement. The researcher was able to achieve the stated objectives in the study.

Findings in relation to the first research question
What are the common mandates of the public policing agencies (Municipal police, traffic police and South African Police) in South Africa?
Findings from this study affirmed that the policy mandate of the SAPS, the Municipal and the Traffic Police, is crime prevention: however, there is a gap between these law enforcement agencies (P6).
Participant (8): Traffic police acts as the primary organ of policing road traffic regulations and related laws, such as drunken driving.
Participant (16): The mandate of traffic police is that they have the exception of operating throughout a particular province to ensure that law enforcement is adhered to on South African roads, by also issuing traffic fines, over-speeding, reckless driving and motorists operating un-roadworthy vehicles as well as those who also uses alcohol while driving. They also ensure that they attend to crimes and prevent crime that happens in the roads.
In summary, (P6) describes the mandate of the Traffic Police as follows: • crime prevention • law enforcement, through traffic fines • inspect roadworthiness of motor vehicle, and • Impound unroadworthy motor vehicle

Findings in relation to research question two: Whether single or centralised policing agencies can reduce crime rate?
Responses to research question two revealed that a single or centralised police service can be a reduce high crime rate in South Africa. It is arguable that available resources do not permit the vast duplication of functions, units and expenses incurred in replicating nine training and other support institutions.

Findings in relation to research question three
Has a single police service succeeded anywhere in the world?
Findings showed that the crime rate is low in those countries, and it illustrates that single police services represent the best policing method in the world. Eighteen (18) participants concurred that a centralised police service can work as it consists of one set of rules (P14). Yes, police normally invoke their legal powers as crime fighters. Provincial traffic police, local traffic police and metropolitan/municipal police services enforce traffic policing laws, a function also to the South African Police Service(P14).
Of course, all countries that are using centralised police service managed to fight crime well as their crime rate are very low compared to South Africa (P7).

Recommendations
The findings in this research confirmed that autonomous policing agencies with different command structures has negative effects, because of the construction of artificial boundaries and barriers (Minister of Police/Minster of Transport) between police agencies, making the task of policing more difficult, and raising serious problems regarding the jurisdiction of various agencies; therefore, a centralised police service is recommended. Centralised police services constitute the best policing method in the world, as countries with a single police service manage to fight crime more efficient-for example, Thailand and Ireland. The participants in this research expressed their views about the structure of the SAPS to be preferably single police service, because it will be easy to manage as such will entails one set of rules and regulations, single command and control, methods, and procedures. It will have positive effects and will make the task of policing easier and cheaper. A single police service is a remedy to the high crime rate in South Africa because it is arguable that the available resources do not permit the enormous duplication of functions. A single police service should be implemented, as it will promote and maintain a high standard of professional ethics, and promote efficient, economic, and effective use of resources and possibly will encourage public participation in policymaking.

Conclusion
Road traffic policing and municipal/metropolitan policing should not be divorced from the national crime prevention approaches of the South African Police Service. These three policing agencies have a common obligation of crime control and law enforcements. One should be holistic when dealing with these three policing agencies in South Africa. There is no doubt that one solution to all the high crime challenges in South Africa is to establish a unified National Police Service. It is recommended that municipal and traffic policing should be placed within the Visible Policing Division of the SAPS. Such an arrangement will address both administrative and operational challenges. The training and resources distribution of these three similar policing agencies (Municipal, Traffic and SAPS) should be centralised.