The influence of crime prevention and policing on the built form: towards a community orientated policing station in Newlands.
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Date
2020
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Abstract
Globally, societies are exposed to the scourge of crime and social deviance resulting in dysfunction with far reaching social consequences. History records that in order for society to function within a safe environment, law enforcement is essential through policing. This important societal function is performed from the built form of police stations which houses a diverse number of crime management occupational activities. The extent to which various crime management activities are pursued effectively, is contingent on the different occupational spaces available within the built form of police stations. In the South African context the built form of police stations was founded on racial divisions with historically disadvantaged Black communities being underserviced by adequate occupational spaces for effective policing. Rented residential buildings, modified containers and mobile police trucks were some of the built forms that served as police stations. Given the legacy of colonialism and later apartheid, police stations also represented the semiotic of political oppression. Upon democracy the South African Police Act was passed in 1995 to break away from the past political dispensation which proposes the participation of local communities in an effort to fight against unprecedented levels of crime in the form of Community Policing Forums (CPF). The aim of this approach is to allow the community to interface with the South African Police Service (SAPS) so that a holistic approach to crime management can be formulated and implemented. However, the reality is that the built form of police stations in its present structure does not provide adequately for effective community participation let alone a conducive environment for law enforcement officers to function effectively in terms of their policing mandate. This is especially so in historically disadvantaged communities were a well-defined space for various policing activities are lacking and even though they do exist are not conducive environments that meets all the organisational needs of the law enforcement officers and the community at large. It is against this context that this study focusses on a case study of the Newlands police station which is located in a low-middle income community west of Durban. The case study makes a situational analysis of the existing built form of the station through a variety of research approaches with key stakeholders and experts in the field of policing, design and crime management. Accounts of police officers serving in this police station as well as in other stations in the province gives light into the experience of police station environments, speaking of their own as well as the perception of the public. The value of this study opportunistically comes at a time where there is grumbling in the political corridors of government on the existing built form of the police station. It is anticipated that this study will serve as a model to meet the diversified occupational needs of its police officers and the local community and demystify the traditional notion of a built environment that has been notorious to be oppressive and functionally inefficient.
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Masters Degree. University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban.