Johannesburg - Police have embarked on a major drive to spruce up their image, which has taken a serious knock in recent times because of highly-publicised instances of brutality, botched investigations and high levels of criminality among officers.
But there are doubts the R14 million invested over two years in the services of The Communications Firm (for reputation management and public relations) and Switch (for creative design work) will succeed in improving the public image of the police, given its challenges are more fundamental than can be fixed through improved communication and marketing.
National police spokesman Lieutenant-Colonel Solomon Makgale says the external service providers are providing the SAPS with overall media management, including the development of communication strategies to reposition crime intelligence, detectives, forensics, visible policing and the entire leadership of the SAPS across all nine provinces.
Other services include media monitoring and analysis, creative design, development of a corporate identity manual and sprucing-up the SAPS websites.
A third tender is still out for brand and change management. Makgale said he did not know the value of the tender, which others have put at more than R10m.
“We are in need of these services as we reform the SAPS communications into a professional outfit. We are well aware of the fundamental reputational problems which must be addressed. We don’t want the PR company to whitewash over problems, but we do want them to assist in getting our message out there about the good work we are doing,” said Makgale.
“It is also important that the SAPS wins the hearts and minds of its employees if the various interventions, in particular bringing the Batho Pele principles to life, are to show tangible results,” said Makgale.
As he was saying this on Friday, the image of the police was being further dented by reports that 50 officers from Douglasdale Police Station were forcibly disarmed following internal fights at the station. Twelve others are also facing suspension.
According to Makgale, an SAPS audit showed 1 448 serving officers had criminal records.
Thebe Ikalafeng, a brand and reputation adviser, warned that the SAPS bid to improve its image would not succeed while it continued to be seen to be failing to deliver on its core mandate of keeping citizens safe and secure.
“Any public good needs to be good. Every institution of government, whether it is the SAPS or (National Prosecuting Authority (NPA), needs to have a good reputation, but that reputation can only be built through delivery on its mandate. It needs to have a good relationship with its customers, who are the citizens of South Africa. They must earn it, and that can only happen if and when they deliver.”
He cautioned that the new PR drive might do more harm than good.
“It is a time-tested reality that the fastest way to destroy a compromised brand is to over-communicate it, through advertising or publicity. The SAPS is not a bad brand – and certainly has come a long way since its pre-democracy days.”
But, it is common knowledge that the police services’ reputation “is severely challenged”.
“It needs to re-earn the public trust and public admiration. They can only win this by delivering on the promise of a safe and secure SA,” said Ikalafeng.
“Right now, with a litany of botched investigations, spiralling violence and common crimes, cold cases and perceived unfair or unequal justice, it is challenged.”
SAPS and the security cluster were also attracting a lot of attention for internal conflicts, instead of doing their job. The mandate is clear, but the focus is unclear.
As a result, the citizens and the reputation of the country suffered.
“Although there was nothing wrong with the government or its agencies advertising and telling their story, it must not be a fable or farce, rather an account of their delivery,” said Ikalafeng.
Janine Hills, chief executive of Vuma Reputation Management, said it was important for the SAPS to focus on reputation management.
“The reputation of an organisation depends on its core values, which are reflected in how it treats employees and external stakeholders,” she said.
“A good reputation is vital to building trust, which is important for the SAPS.
Reputation management should start with healing the SAPS from the inside to establish the good reputation.
“This trust starts with trusting yourself, as a police officer, then trusting and supporting your fellow officers to build admiration and a spirit of cohesion,” said Hills.
She said training programmes can be designed to ensure police officers are empowered to carry out their duties with pride, earning the respect of South Africans because it is a privilege to serve the nation.
“Police Officers should be trained in personal discipline that will enable them to adhere to the framework of standards.
“These standards should focus on the working environment, leadership, governance, giving back to the community, performance, service offerings and the investment in our future SAPS development,” said Hills.
“This should culminate in the model police officers who can take ownership of the SAPS vision, which is to serve and protect, and truly believe in the invaluable role they play in our society.”
Christiaan Bezuidenhout, professor in criminology at the University of Pretoria, said the SAPS had done much to transform and discard the baggage it inherited from the erstwhile SAP, which did not enjoy the support of the black majority because it enforced apartheid laws.
SAPS owed a large part of its image problems to the political appointment of civilians with no policing experience to its leadership, coupled with the remilitarisation under former commissioner Bheki Cele. Cele succeeded the disgraced Jackie Selebi and was himself subsequently fired.
“Things started to deteriorate from Selebi’s time. Cele came in and immediately talked of meeting fighting fire with fire. The people who are placed as heads of the police without experience do not have the respect of their sub-ordinates, many of whom are hardcore police who know how things work,” said Bezuidenhout.
Cele got rid of the flying squad, resulting in poor police response times, from eight minutes 15 years ago to the dismal 19 minutes today, if the police come at all. This had resulted in crime-weary citizens losing confidence in the police and turning to private security firms.
Bezuidenhout said there was also a “noteworthy” rise in police criminality and brutality.
“However, I believe there are extremely good police officers and we have some of the best detectives. Unfortunately, instead of having only one or two rotten apples in a box, we have 10 or 12 rotten apples in a box of 36.”
He said part of the blame lay in the mass recruitment drive of police ahead of the 2010 World Cup. This, he said, was done without proper vetting, psychological assessment and below-standard police training.
“To spend R25m on superficial things like image, when the people behind the police desk cannot even spell (when taking down statements) and are very unprofessional is not the correct solution.
“It’s like putting new, expensive mag wheels on a skorokoro (wreck) and hoping it will perform better. It won’t. It will perform the same or worse,” said Bezuidenhout.
The police are also still struggling to work within a human rights culture.
“How do you police professionally in a violent society. That is probably our biggest challenge. We are one of most brutal societies… We use gratuitous violence to get what we want. That flows into the police. They cannot go into a gunfight with a two-way radio,” said Bezuidenhout.
He said the solution to the SAPS’s image problems lay in increased professionalism, appropriate training and skills development ongoing in-service training, proper recruitment and vetting.
“We can fix it. But, society must also come to the party. The community policing forums, sector-policing bodies and the public must report corrupt police and flush them all out. Also, it is the community that pays the bribes and puts pressure on the police. This must also stop.”
Sunday Independent