THE APPLE DOES NOT FALL FAR FROM THE TREE: CAN SOCIETY CORRUPT POLICE OFFICIALS?

Year 2016, Volume: 8 Issue: 2, 150 - 164, 01.12.2016

J. T. Mofokeng

Abstract

It is argued that police officers commonly present what they consider to be an
acceptable face to researchers regarding the cause and extent of police corruption
within their respective law enforcement agencies. This ‘self-censorship’ can be a
challenge to obtaining a reliable view of police officers’ occupational, informal
and personal perceptions. Empirical research on police corruptive practices in
South Africa highlights the problem which seems to be persistent in the South
African Police Service (SAPS). Though a number of factors combine to make
reliable estimates of the number of officials engaging in misconduct difficult to
obtain, the sheer number of individuals working in the SAPS suggest the scope of
the problem. In order to get beyond some of these familiar tropes given the stigma
attached to corruption, in-depth semi-structured interviews were conducted with
key informants from the public in the three provinces of South Africa namely;
Gauteng, KwaZulu-Natal and Western Cape to solicit their views regarding the
concept ‘corrupting society’ as to determine, if society does corrupt the police.
The findings indicated that while some pockets of excellence have been attained
towards improving police-public relations, the other ‘side of the coin’ poses risks
to the SAPS as corrupt friendship bonds with friends and associates within the
communities the police serve, causes profound organisational problems to reduce
police corruption. In the face of recent media scrutiny regarding how at the
national level, some of the former National Commissioners were implicated by
the media to have received kickbacks due to their close associations with some
influential families, implies a concern of far greater complexity than the ordinary
exchanges of accusation and defence regarding a ‘corrupting society’ and ‘corrupted police officials’ are likely to reveal. The author provided possible
recommendations emanating from the findings.

Keywords

Corrupting society, experts, interview

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