Preliminary data from the latest Action Society police trust-indicator survey (Do you stop for a cop?) suggest that less than 10% of South African road users feel safe when they are pulled over by the South African Police Service (SAPS), or when they need to stop at vehicle checkpoints and roadblocks.
“Trust in SAPS is at an all-time low and the preliminary results from this survey confirm it. SAPS is not trusted due to criminality in its own ranks and the utter lack of results with combatting crime,” said Ian Cameron, Director of Community Safety at Action Society.
Cameron explained that these results are dooming for SAPS as it only adds insult to injury after Action Society’s first trust-indicator survey which was done to determine trust in the SAPS 10111 emergency line. It showed that Only 2% of South Africans will call 10111 first in an emergency. Private security (56,8%) and neighbourhood watch groups (40,7%) would much rather be called by most civilians looking for emergency assistance.
The Do you stop for a cop? survey will continue to run until the end of June 2022 whereafter final results will be analysed and released, including the results of several other questions asked.
