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In August 2012 Kate O'Regan, a former judge of the South African Constitutional Court, was appointed by the premier of the Western Cape to head the Commission of Inquiry into Allegations of Police Inefficiency and a Breakdown in Relations between SAPS and the Community in Khayelitsha. Two years later, on 25 August 2014, the commission submitted its final report and recommendations. In this exchange O'Regan reflects from the inside out on some aspects of the public inquiry into policing in Khayelitsha. Here one finds reference to judicial independence and organisational autonomy of commissions of inquiry; the value of comparative lesson drawing for process design; the importance of creating safe spaces for all participants; and honouring the contributions of participants. Policing, O'Regan concludes, is a truly challenging enterprise. Both political and police leadership carry a moral responsibility to engage systemic and other challenges as identified in both of the Marikana and Khayelitsha reports. Not to do so would imply the abdication of responsibility to address the safety and security concerns of South African citizens.

On the surface, South Africa seems well positioned to play a leading role in development cooperation in Africa. Support for such a role is appealing at a time when the notion of South-South exchanges is current. Beyond the political rhetoric, however, there lie a range of issues which at present hamper the role of South Africa, and its public police agency, the South African Police Service, in particular. These issues are explored through an examination of South African Police Service's assistance to the Police Nationale Congolaise (hereinafter referred to as the PNC) in the Democratic Republic of Congo (hereinafter referred to as the DRC). For purposes of this enquiry I rely on a field visit to Kinshasa and a series of interviews with South African Police Services' (hereinafter referred to as SAPS) officials conversant with the emerging dynamics of developmental assistance to other police institutions within the region. From this case study - admittedly brief and limited - some broader observations relevant to South-South assistance in the terrain of safety and security are made, in the hope of helping advance our understanding of the role of the police in police building during state reconstruction.

On the surface, South Africa seems well positioned to play a leading role in development cooperation in Africa. Support for such a role is appealing at a time when the notion of South-South exchanges is current. Beyond the political rhetoric, however, there lie a range of issues which at present hamper the role of South Africa, and its public police agency, the South African Police Service, in particular. These issues are explored through an examination of South African Police Service's assistance to the Police Nationale Congolaise (hereinafter referred to as the PNC) in the Democratic Republic of Congo (hereinafter referred to as the DRC). For purposes of this enquiry I rely on a field visit to Kinshasa and a series of interviews with South African Police Services' (hereinafter referred to as SAPS) officials conversant with the emerging dynamics of developmental assistance to other police institutions within the region. From this case study - admittedly brief and limited - some broader observations relevant to South-South assistance in the terrain of safety and security are made, in the hope of helping advance our understanding of the role of the police in police building during state reconstruction.

Includes bibliographical references ( leaves 192-227). ; In the contemporary era policy-making is increasingly being shaped by non-domestic influences and actors. The mobility of policy ideas and mechanisms across time and space provides a challenge: How best to conceptualise the routes and modes of travelling whereby ideas and instruments are transported from one location to another? Conceptual tools originally designed in public policy circles - such as lesson-drawing, modelling, policy diffusion, policy transfer and convergence - have more recently been introduced into criminological enquiries regarding the convergence of criminal justice policies. This thesis applies the conceptual framework of policy transfer (referring to conscious efforts on the part of social agencies to export-import lessons from one locale to another) to the field of policing with a specific emphasis on South African police reform after 1990. The central focus of this enquiry is the interplay between novel, often externally derived , ideas and practices with a national police force at a time of immense political transition. Selective aspects of South African police reform are explored with specific emphasis on how, in what way, and to what extent, local reform efforts have been influenced by global notions and practices of good policing.Three institutional conduits for reformist policing ideas are considered. In the first instance, the contribution of policing scholars, a knowledge-based community of some importance, to debates on the pathways for police reform are discussed with an emphasis on the theoretical and normative assumptions that have guided their analyses of a policing ethos and system beyond Apartheid. Secondly, the role of an interim policy mechanism, the National Police Board (created in terms of a peace agreement signed in 1991) in setting an agenda for police reform is considered. Thirdly, the discussion profiles the international development community as a constituency of importance in recent police reform efforts. The latter exploration proceeds through a case study method. Three distinct examples of donor aid in support of institutional reform are described with particular reference to the paradigms invoked, the cultural entrepreneurs and policy networks involved, and the contextual factors that facilitated and/or constrained reformist efforts. A wide range of data collection methods were utilised during the course of the research. A literature review of contemporary debates on policy transfer, police and security sector reform in both mature and emerging democracies was undertaken. Furthermore, a wide range of primary documentary sources and various official policy documents were consulted. Face to face interviews with members of various policy constituencies also provided source material. Lastly, participant observation of policy structures and field notes compiled during evaluative research of a number of donor assisted projects provided contextual observations of importance to the analysis. This enquiry supports the conclusion that there is growing convergence in the language and practices associated with democratic police reform. Yet the dilemmas of policy transfer from North to South - particularly (although not exclusively) in the context of aid packages - are often underestimated. Local experiments suggest that whilst policy transfers can facilitate policy change, policies transferred all too easily become victims of domestic contingencies. Empirical enquiries into the context, processes and outcomes associated with reformist interventions are necessary to sharpen our understanding of how exactly policy travels and to what local effect. Recent reform activity aimed at the South African Police illustrates the extent to which policy communities situated at the local, national and transnational level do not exist in isolation but rather stand in a complex and interactive relationship to one another.

Cover -- Copyright -- Content -- ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS -- NOTES 0N CONTRIBUTORS -- Introduction: Justice Gained? -- 1 'A SNAKE GIVES BIRTH TO A SNAKE' -- 2 OUT OF THE MAINSTREAM -- 3 GUNS AND PUBLIC POLICY IN SOUTH AFRlCA -- 4 MURDER AND CAPITAL PUNISHMENT AFTER APARTHEID -- 5 CHILD JUSTICE AND DIVERSION -- 6 ACTING AGAINST DOMESTIC VIOLENCE -- 7 COSMETIC CRIME PREVENTION -- 8 SOUTH AFRICAN POLICING STUDIES IN THE MAKING -- 9 SWIMMING AGAINST THE TIDE -- INDEX.