Police cooperation in the Southern African region: politics and practicalities

This paper describes some of the issues around which cooperation among police agencies in the South African region have been coalescing. Cooperative engagements have resulted in a degree of harmonisation of policy and standardisation of police training. Within the region too a rhetorical commitment to common values and standards associated with democratic policing is forthcoming. Overall the processes underway are shaped by regional dynamics of a broader socio-political and specific police organisational nature. Structural underdevelopment, the weakness of institutions such as the police and contrarian politics more widely provide the context within which cooperation has evolved. By drawing on documentary analysis and interviews with practitioners in the field, the substantive areas around which cooperation is taking place are outlined. In this account particular reference is made to the role of a regional structure (the Southern African Regional Police Chiefs Coordination Committee) and the national police agency (the South African Police Service) of South Africa, in the evolving business of cooperation in the Southern African region. Research for this paper was made possible through funding received from the Open Society Foundation (SA).

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Elrena Van der SpuyEmail: