Who should the police be? Finding a new narrative for community policing in South Africa

In South Africa, police cling to the idea of a policing monopoly and prove reluctant to exhaust possibilities for sharing the load of creating safety. Nevertheless, they operate knowing that feelings of insecurity are rising and diverse ‘nodes’ for governing security have been established. Police and public authorities realize that a policing monopoly is more a dream than a reality, yet their policies and practices surrounding partnerships reveal an incoherent vision. We argue that this incoherence provides opportunities for designing innovative partnerships for the nodal governance of security that support the notion of a ‘core,’ and publicly symbolic police role.