The effects of budgetary allocation on South African Police Service crime prevention strategy in the Western Cape, South Africa

Abstract

The high crime rate in South Africa affects the economic well-being of the country. Reduction in crime depends on many factors, one of which is the resources allocated for efforts to reduce crime. Economic growth of the country is indirectly affected by the level of crime since the country’s level of growth is used by credit rating agencies in deciding a country’s measure of credit worthiness. Allocation of financial resources thus plays a significant role in the fight against crime. However, in recent times, the South African Police Services (SAPS) budgetary allocation towards crime reduction has not matched the increasing cost of crime prevention in relation to the country’s population. The police play a significant role in preventing and investigating crime. For the police to achieve this objective, adequate funding is essential. The study objective to ascertain the trend of SAPS budget allocation in the past ten years in view of increasing population and how it affects the crime prevention strategy. This study investigated the impact of budget constraints on crime prevention strategy using a mixed method approach. A questionnaire was used to collect quantitative data, which were analysed using SPSS and XLSTAT, while semi-structured interviews were used to collect qualitative data. The population consisted of SAPS officers holding the ranks of constables, sergeants, warrant officers and captains, at Cape Town Central SAPS along with senior Western Cape provincial managers. In all, 50 officers and 2 senior managers responsible for budget and crime prevention participated in the study. The findings indicated that budgetary allocation to SAPS has been relatively constant when the annual rate of inflation is taken into consideration, especially for the last decade. However, there was a significant increase in the budget allocation to SAPS for the Western Cape in the 2009/2010 fiscal year (29%), suspected to be in preparation for the hosting of the FIFA World Cup in South Africa. The increase in budgetary allocation was associated with a moderate increase in the success rate in crime reduction. This study identified the need to increase the annual budgetary allocation to SAPS in order to address personnel shortages, police training and the use of technology in the Western Cape Province in order to strengthen crime prevention. The study recommends regular increases in police budgetary allocation that should reflect annual increases in the inflation rate and population growth and should cater for capital expenditure in modern technology deployed to combat crime.