The South African Police Service’s code of conduct: A critical review

This policy paper revisits the SAPS code of conduct 20 years after its introduction and considers it against the NDP’s vision for the organisation. It begins with a review of the NDP’s SAPS-related recommendations, then sketches the way the Code has been captured, presented and engaged with in SAPS annual reports and disciplinary data. It reviews parliamentary engagement with the Code recorded in minutes of meetings by the Portfolio Committee on Police and discusses SAPS disciplinary regulations in relation to the Code. It considers the Code in relation to the African Union’s (AU) guidance on codes of conduct for law enforcement, and the Southern African Regional Police Chiefs Cooperation Organisation (SARPCCO) code of conduct, and draws on these to critically reflect on the SAPS Code in relation to the NDP’s vision. It suggests that in its current form much of the Code is difficult to enforce, and recommends that a revised or revisited Code should be easy to interpret and apply for front line SAPS officials and their supervisors.