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This report assesses the rural safety capacity lost by the phasing out of the South African National Defence Force’s (SANDF) Territorial Reserve, known as the Commandos, and evaluates the South African Police Service's (SAPS) ability to replace these functions. Through fieldwork in the Free State, Eastern Cape, and Gauteng, the author argues that while Commandos primarily protected the interests of the rural middle class and could be socially destructive if deployed inappropriately, they provided a critical force-multiplication capacity for policing agricultural crimes. The report concludes that the transition to SAPS is likely to result in a deterioration of rural policing because SAPS organizational incentives and national performance targets prioritize urban 'contact crimes' over rural property crimes.

This case study examines the implementation of sector policing in the West Rand area of Johannesburg, South Africa, starting in April 2003. It describes a transition from a centralized, 'saturation' style of policing to a decentralized model focused on local knowledge and long-term problem-solving. The document details the operational requirements of the sectors, the distinction between routine risk identification and complex problem-solving, and the resulting qualitative changes in police-civilian relations.