Prelims

Half Title Page

Danger in Police Culture

Title Page

Danger in Police Culture: Perspectives from South Africa

By

Gráinne Perkins

University of Southern Maine, USA

United Kingdom – North America – Japan – India – Malaysia – China

Copyright Page

Emerald Publishing Limited

Emerald Publishing, Floor 5, Northspring, 21-23 Wellington Street, Leeds LS1 4DL

First edition 2024

Copyright © 2024 Gráinne Perkins.

Published under exclusive licence by Emerald Publishing Limited.

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No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, transmitted in any form or by any means electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise without either the prior written permission of the publisher or a licence permitting restricted copying issued in the UK by The Copyright Licensing Agency and in the USA by The Copyright Clearance Center. Any opinions expressed in the chapters are those of the authors. Whilst Emerald makes every effort to ensure the quality and accuracy of its content, Emerald makes no representation implied or otherwise, as to the chapters' suitability and application and disclaims any warranties, express or implied, to their use.

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

ISBN: 978-1-83753-113-4 (Print)

ISBN: 978-1-83753-112-7 (Online)

ISBN: 978-1-83753-114-1 (Epub)

Dedication

In memory of a beloved South African friend who embraced words and championed my work.

Mrs Nanette Evans

List of Figures

List of Acronyms

APC

Armoured Personnel Carrier

AVLS

Automatic Vehicle Location System

BRVs

Bullet Resistant Vests

CAS

Crime Administrative System

CCCF

Cluster Crime Combating Forum

CPF

Community Police Forum

CPU

Crime Prevention Unit

CSC

Community Service Centre/Charge Office or the Client Service Centre.

CSVR

The Centre for the Study of Violence and Reconciliation

DCS

Department of Correctional Services

DPS

Directorate of Police Safety

DSO

Directorate of Special Operations (also referred to as the Scorpions)

EHW

Employee Health and Wellness

FLASH

Firearms Liquor and Second-hand Goods Control

HAWKS

The Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation (also referred to as Hawks)

ICD

Independent Complaints Directorate

IPID

The Independent Police Investigative Directorate

MDC

Multi-Disciplinary Enquiry Committee

NIJ

National Institute of Justice (the United States)

NIU

National Intelligence Unit

PCCF

Provincial Crime Combating Forum

PDR

Police Death Rate

PMG

Parliamentary Monitoring Group

POPCRU

The Police and Prisons Civil Rights Union

R5

5.6 mm Assault Rifle

ROC

Resolving of Crime Learnership Course

SAP

The South African Police

SAPS

The South African Police Service

SAPU

The South African Policing Union

SJC

Social Justice Coalition

STF

Special Task Force

SWOT

Strength, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threat Analysis

TRT

Tactical Response Team

VISPOL

Visible Policing Unit

WCOD

Western Cape Organisational Development

About the Author

Dr Gráinne Perkins is currently the Chief of Police and Executive Director of Public Safety at the University of Southern Maine. Prior to this, she held the position of Interim Director of Police Accountability for the Seattle Police Department. Her professional experience spanning three continents working with three different police agencies is complemented with sustained criminological research. She has published works on the occupational and organisational aspects of policing which include, but are not limited to, police trauma including police suicide, memorialisation in policing and the use of body-worn cameras. She holds two Master's from Ireland and was awarded the 2019 Richard Block Award for an outstanding thesis for her PhD in Criminology from the University of Cape Town South Africa. Her police experience ranges from community policing in Ireland to international work with Interpol and she has spent 15 years as an operational police detective investigating serious offences including homicide and organised crime. Dr Perkins was an adjunct Professor at Seattle University and has taught criminology courses and guest lectured at the University of Cape Town, University College Dublin and at the University of Zurich.

The author's proceeds from the sale of this book will be used to support the Perkins Síochána Scholarship which was established to finance the continuous development of South African graduate students in Criminal Justice and Criminology studies in the Global South.

Foreword

Clifford Shearing

Every so often a book appears that offers a novel perspective on a key feature of police and their policing that encourages scholars and police alike to look anew. This book by Gráinne Perkins, who began career as an Irish police officer and who is now the Police Chief at the University of Southern Maine, is such a book.

It is a book by a sophisticated policing scholar who has skilfully drawn upon her experience as a police officer to explore the relationship between police and danger and its impacts – impacts that shape police, their policing, the communities they operate in and the danger they face itself. This is a book that will transform thinking not simply about South African policing – which is the books empirical focus, but about police, policing and indeed social studies more generally.

To do this Perkins draws on the theoretical lenses of Michel Foucault, Pierre Bourdieu and Theodore Sarbin and couples this with a sensitive empathetic, appreciative enquiry of police and policing in a ‘township’ community in Cape Town, to provide a novel account of danger, police and policing. South African policing has experienced an extraordinary record of violence by police and to police, including the killing of police officers killed on and off duty.

In her account of policing and danger Perkins' builds upon, and extends, a rich literature on South African policing. This is itself a significant accomplishment.

But Perkins does much more than open wider the window on police and policing within South Africa. What is as significant is Perkins' ability to identify the general in the particular, the global in the local and to advanced police and policing studies generally. In doing so Perkins takes her place alongside an illustrious line of thinkers within police studies who have used ethnographies within particular locations to advance our understanding of policing. In doing so Perkins adds significantly to an expanding body of work from the Global South that is reconceiving policing studies and criminology.

As I have already suggested, Perkins does much more than this by contributing to a material turn in scholarship that insists, that social studies become socio-material studies that recognise that human activity is shaped both by what people do as actors as well as what things do as ‘actants’, to use Bruno Latour's term. This contribution is evident, for example, in Perkins's insightful analysis of police funerals, where she expands upon Manning's initial observations regarding the dramaturgy of police work. By focusing on this specific aspect, Perkins sheds light on the significance of both verbal and visual elements within these solemn ceremonies.

Perkins conceptualises danger as both a socio-material phenomenon that is constantly being constituted and reconstituted. One of the ways she does this is by paying attention to the artefacts that police engage with as they go about their work. This focus enables Perkins to break new conceptual ground as she explores how these engagements ‘make up’ – to use Richard Ericson phrase – police, policing as well as the worlds they police, and that ‘police’ them. There is, of course, nothing new in a recognition of the artefacts of policing, as tools of policing – be they weapons, uniforms, vehicles, communications tools, barriers, buildings, computers and most recently the growing assortment of artificial intelligences (AI) that contribute to police work. What is different about Perkins' examination of these artefacts is the attention she pays to the way in which they shape, police – their mindsets and their actions and, in doing so, their worlds, including danger.

In considering Perkins' analysis there is much that policing scholars, will be able to draw upon as they explore, and extend, this socio-material turn. There is also much that police will find useful as the worlds they police, and the demands on them, shift.

Clifford Shearing

Professor Emeritus at the Universities of Toronto and Cape Town

Acknowledgements

I am immensely grateful to all those who contributed to the realisation of this book. Without the unwavering support and assistance of the South African Police Service, this endeavour would have been impossible. I extend my heartfelt appreciation to all the police officers, of every rank, who participated in this research and facilitated its execution.

No book is ever created in its entirety by a single individual. Rather, editors and publishers are required to bring a book to life. Every author, in turn, draws on many others' expertise to create a work worthy of publication. As such, I would initially also like to express my sincere gratitude to the team at Emerald Publishers, and the original project supervisors, Professor Elrena Van Der Spuy and Dr Kelley Moult at the University of Cape Town. I'm extremely grateful for conversations with Professor Clifford Shearing and Dr Simon Howell who graciously gave their time to help shape my thinking and guide this work in its earliest form.

To my South African friends and adopted family members who accompanied me on this incredible journey and became my second family away from Ireland, I owe a debt of gratitude. Your companionship and insights have enriched my experience and broadened my understanding. Special appreciation belongs to Ms Thandi Goxo, who taught me isiXhosa and patiently endured my accent. Her assistance with translations for this book has been invaluable.

To all my international academic colleagues and friends, I am indebted to you for your continuous inspiration and support. Your dedication to research and scholarly pursuits motivates me to push knowledge boundaries.

I would also like to extend my sincere thanks to Mark Condren, an award winning Irish photographer, who graciously permitted the use of his work in this book. A special thanks to Nathan Stasin for permitting me to use his photograph for the cover of this book.

Special mention is given to my own family members, Mam (Pauline) and Dad (Christy). Their unwavering support and belief in my abilities are unmatched. My mam's dedication to meticulously reviewing early drafts of this book was invaluable. I would like to extend my heartfelt gratitude to my incredible in-laws, Barbara and Don McGrail for their constant encouragement. Thanks to my siblings, Sinead, Fiona, Orla, Colin and Maeve, as always, for continually encouraging my endeavours while at times, questioning my sanity.

I would like to acknowledge and thank my closest friends, Deirdre Quinn (Mc Gowan), Grace Mc Gowan, the UCD Sprucey crew, Gráinne Sheehan and my good friend in Seattle, Susan Rotenberg. I am so grateful for all your encouragement as my personal cheerleaders which kept me motivated, particularly during times of tiredness and doubt. A special thanks to my personal ‘Statler and Waldorf’, Sé Mc Cormack and Dave Jordan, for always keeping it real.

Lastly, I want to thank my husband, Chris. Your love and support has made me profoundly grateful to have you by my side, even though you are significantly older than me. The difference that four days can make reveals the true wisdom of individuals.