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20 S. Afr. J. Crim. Just. 46 (2007)
An Enemy from within: A Critical Analysis of Corruption in the South African Police Service

handle is hein.journals/soafcrimj20 and id is 48 raw text is: An enemy from within: a critical analysis of corruption in the South African Police Service D T MASILOANE* ABSTRACT The South African Police Service, like many other police agencies around the world, is confronted by the challenge of fighting crime with clean hands. To win this challenge, police corruption needs to be systematically uprooted. The rooting out of corruption is crucial to preserve the integrity of the police agency. Police corruption is increasingly understood as a hazard inherent in police work. The aim of this article is to investigate various factors that play a role in or make it easy for the police to commit corruption. This will be followed by measures designed to prevent corruption. The preventive measures are premised on the fact that there are multiple causal factors to police corruption, which are found within individual members, the organisation and in the operational methods of the police. These factors will be scrutinized and various preventive measures will be proposed as the way forward. The article further explains the importance of cultivating police informants within the police service and highlights the necessity of changing police policies to ensure that police informants are paid. 1. Introduction Since 1996, the South African Police Service has made the prevention of corruption within the police a priority. When he assumed the office of National Police Commissioner, Jackie Selebi said that crime would be fought with clean hands.1 Various measures, such as the establishment of the anti-corruption units and the introduction of a code of conduct have been embarked upon in an attempt to deal with police corruption. Despite the initiatives taken to deal with corruption there is little indica- tion that shows that the police are succeeding in solving this problem. The disbandment of the anti-corruption units by the South African Police Service was a strategic error, particularly at the time when the South African Police Service was growing at a phenomenal rate, and cor- ruption within its members was becoming a cancer praying on the gains * BA (Hons) MA DLit et Phil (UNISA) Senior Lecturer and Researcher, College of Law, University of South Africa. J Selebi 'Handing over of command of SAPS', 13 January 2000, available at http:// www.saps.gov.za/saps-profile/selebisp.htm, accessed on 30 April 2007.

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