Evaluation of Community Intelligence and Interagency Synergies as a Proficient Strategy for Addressing Crime in South African Communities

Ezeji Chiji Longinus

Abstract

Community policing is a security policy framework adopted by state governments to address growing insecurity and crime challenges. However, its effectiveness is hindered by a lack of cooperation and positive relationships between security agencies, the community, and the police. This study aims to assess community intelligence and the role of the community in gathering information, identify the role of interagency collaborations and the problems confronting them in addressing crime, and incorporate community intelligence into the community policing model for effective crime detection and prevention. A mixed-methods approach was used, with face-to-face interviews and questionnaires administered to 55 participants, including high-ranking members of the South African Police Service and immigration, customs, border security, and private security sectors. The findings revealed that community intelligence, which includes information provided by community members, plays a crucial role in assisting law enforcement in crime detection, prevention, investigation, and prosecution. Interagency collaboration allows security agencies to tackle criminal incidents through their best efforts, promoting proactive measures and strategies. However, challenges, such as external influences, lack of resources, and unclear purposes, hinder effective collaboration. Incorporating community intelligence into the community policing model involves gathering information about factors hindering community development, utilizing crime intelligence analysts, collators, and street officers, and promoting information sharing between the police, security networks, and public and private sectors. The study recommends utilizing community and social intelligence to detect and uncover social interactions, group behaviors, and community dynamics and employing technology for crime mapping and analysis. Effective crime detection and prevention require information and intelligence sharing, with community intelligence playing a vital role in identifying and understanding criminal groups and behaviors. 

 

Keywords: Evaluation, Community, Interagency collaboration, Information, Intelligence, Policing, South Africa

 

DOI: https://doi.org/10.55463/hkjss.issn.1021-3619.64.16


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