Monitoring of police

Our Department of Police Oversight and Community Safety ensures that citizens receive professional policing that is effective. The objective is to contribute towards the Promotion of Professional Policing (PPP) through effective oversight in the Province. The Department manages this through the Directorate: Monitoring and Evaluation which oversees, and is mandated to:

• monitor police conduct;
• assess the effectiveness of visible policing; and
• to oversee the effectiveness and efficiency of the police service.

The Directorate achieves its mandate through performing the following functions:

• compliance monitoring and evaluation audits conducted at police stations,
• compliance to the Domestic Violence Act (Act 116 of 1998) (DVA),
• the implementation of the Independent Police Investigative Directorate’s (IPID) recommendations, and
• other police monitoring and evaluation special projects on an ad hoc basis.

The Directorate monitors and reports on the effectiveness and efficiency of policing. This is done through oversight visits to police stations and by administering various oversight tools. The focus areas of oversight visits include:

• police professionalism
• detective services
• visible policing
• community service centres
• resource management
• legislative and policy compliances
• community-police relations; and
• the implementation of recommendations of previous oversight visits.