In South Africa, law enforcement is the responsibility of the South African Police Service. The service is a national organization with provincial and municipal divisions.
The South African Police Service has over 200,000 police officers, making it one of the largest police forces in the world. The force is divided into nine regions and contains a variety of specialized units including:
-Specialized Commercial Crime Unit
-National Narcotics Bureau
-Specialized Crime Investigation Units
-Crime Intelligence Division
-Forensic Science Services
What are the objectives of the South African Police Service?
The objectives of the South African Police Service are to:
-Protect and serve the community
-Maintain law and order
-Enforce the law
-Provide a service that responds to the needs of victims, witnesses, and offenders
What is the history of the South African police?
The South African Police Force is the national police force of South Africa. It was founded in 1913 and took over from the British colonial police. The South African Police handle law enforcement and policing, crime prevention, criminal investigation, traffic policing, counter-terrorism and intelligence gathering within its territory.
The history of the South African Police can be traced back to the times when it was under British control. In 1910, a Royal Commission on Decolonisation was set up in order to investigate how the British could relinquish their control over their colonies with no form of violence or bloodshed. A plan for a gradual transition into self-government was created by this commission which included an “African Auxiliary Forces” that would be trained by the British to take over from them as they left Africa.
In 1912, Sir Percy Fynn established a school for this purpose in Durban with a training course that lasted six months before it graduated its first batch of recruits who were then sent to the Boer War. The school was initially called the Percy Fynn School of Instruction for Volunteer Officers and was based at 64 St George’s Road, Durban. It later moved to a building on the corner of Union and Albert Streets, Durban), a building that had been used as the headquarters of the British South Africa Company and is now occupied by Barclays Bank Limited.
