{"id":95069,"date":"2015-08-13T23:45:58","date_gmt":"2015-08-13T21:45:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=95069"},"modified":"2015-08-13T15:46:10","modified_gmt":"2015-08-13T13:46:10","slug":"south-africas-police-force-vs-the-world","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/trending\/95069\/south-africas-police-force-vs-the-world\/","title":{"rendered":"South Africa’s police force vs the world"},"content":{"rendered":"

According to National Police Commissioner, General Riah Phiyega, the South African citizen\/police ratio is currently at one police officer for every\u00a0347 citizens, or around 288 police officers per 100,000 people.<\/p>\n

This puts the country in the lower-middle end of policing when compared to countries across the world – alarming, when considering that the country has one of the highest crime rates in the entire world<\/a><\/strong> – though it is within the recommended range of the UN.<\/p>\n

According to data from the UN, the global average for police per 100,000 people\u00a0is around 340 officers. The international body recommends a minimum police strength of 220 per 100,000 people.<\/p>\n

According the SAPS’ latest annual report (to March 2014), the police service had a total workforce of 194,852 people.<\/p>\n

This is made up of 36,304 employees in administration; 103,746 police officers engaged in visible policing; 39,748 detectives; 8,723 crime intelligence officers; and 6,331 protection and security officers.<\/p>\n

In the year, the SAPS paid out R51.3 million in salaries to police men and women, averaging R263,200 per officer.<\/p>\n

Policing around the world<\/h3>\n

The most populous countries in the world have the biggest police forces – with China\u00a0and\u00a0India each pushing forces over 1 million officers strong.<\/p>\n

The table below details the world’s largest police forces based on available UN data from 2013.<\/p>\n

Note that China is not included\u00a0in the UN data, but estimates put the country’s People’s Armed Force at anywhere between 660,000 (government reported) and 1.5 million members.<\/p>\n

While South Africa is not included in the UN data either, available information from the SAPS for 2013 shows that the country had the 11th biggest police force.<\/p>\n

Biggest police forces around the world (2013)<\/h3>\n
\n
\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
#<\/th>\nCountry<\/th>\nPolice force<\/th>\nPer 100,000 population<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n
1<\/td>\nIndia<\/td>\n1 731 537<\/td>\n138<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
–<\/td>\nChina<\/em><\/td>\n1\u00a0500 000 (est)<\/em><\/td>\n120 (est)<\/em><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
2<\/td>\nRussia<\/td>\n745 607<\/td>\n522<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
3<\/td>\nUSA<\/td>\n626 942<\/td>\n196<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
4<\/td>\nBrazil<\/td>\n536 018<\/td>\n268<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
5<\/td>\nMexico<\/td>\n454 126<\/td>\n371<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
6<\/td>\nNigeria<\/td>\n360 000<\/td>\n207<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
7<\/td>\nItaly<\/td>\n276 515<\/td>\n453<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
8<\/td>\nJapan<\/td>\n257 100<\/td>\n202<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
9<\/td>\nSpain<\/td>\n246 507<\/td>\n525<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
10<\/td>\nGermany<\/td>\n245 072<\/td>\n296<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
11<\/strong><\/td>\nSouth Africa<\/strong><\/td>\n194 852<\/strong><\/td>\n368<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
12<\/td>\nAlgeria<\/td>\n192 679<\/td>\n491<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
13<\/td>\nPhilippines<\/td>\n149 263<\/td>\n152<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
14<\/td>\nUK (England & Wales)<\/td>\n127 909<\/td>\n225<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
15<\/td>\nFrance<\/td>\n110 866<\/td>\n172<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

But when looking at police forces spread per 100,000 people, it is the smaller countries, with much smaller populations that have the widest coverage.<\/p>\n

Notably, the Vatican City is well known for having a population largely made up of its security force.<\/p>\n

Of the 450-odd population, 130 people serve as a police force, meaning there is one police officer for every three citizens.<\/p>\n

According to the latest available data from the UN’s Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), Macau, a special administrative region of China, has the highest per capita police force, with 1,087 officers per 100,000 population.<\/p>\n

The region has a police force of 6,157 among a population of 566,725.<\/p>\n

This is followed by the Maldives, where there are 908 police per 100,000 people, and Uruguay, with 673 police per 100,000 people.<\/p>\n

Police per capita around the world (2013)<\/h3>\n
\n
\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
#<\/th>\nCountry<\/th>\nPolice force<\/th>\nPer 100,000 population<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n
1<\/td>\nMacau (China)<\/td>\n6 157<\/td>\n1 087<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
2<\/td>\nMaldives<\/td>\n3 133<\/td>\n908<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
3<\/td>\nUruguay<\/td>\n22 943<\/td>\n673<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
4<\/td>\nMontenegro<\/td>\n4 146<\/td>\n667<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
5<\/td>\nLebanon<\/td>\n27 594<\/td>\n572<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
6<\/td>\nBhutan<\/td>\n4 193<\/td>\n556<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
7<\/td>\nSpain<\/td>\n246 507<\/td>\n525<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
8<\/td>\nRussia<\/td>\n745 607<\/td>\n522<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
9<\/td>\nBarbados<\/td>\n1 403<\/td>\n493<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
10<\/td>\nAlgeria<\/td>\n192 679<\/td>\n491<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
11<\/td>\nCroatia<\/td>\n20 747<\/td>\n483<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
12<\/td>\nGreece<\/td>\n53 441<\/td>\n480<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
13<\/td>\nItaly<\/td>\n276 515<\/td>\n453<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
14<\/td>\nMalta<\/td>\n1 942<\/td>\n452<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
15<\/td>\nHong Kong (China)<\/td>\n32 128<\/td>\n446<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

More on South Africa<\/h3>\n

South Africa is unraveling \u2013 and no one seems to care<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Alarming number of South Africans bribe the police<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

The worst crime hot spots in South Africa<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

How many police officers do you need to effectively police a country’s population – and does South Africa have enough uniformed officers to do so?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":93134,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[26,10301,10303,3888,10299],"class_list":["post-95069","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-trending","tag-headline","tag-police","tag-police-force","tag-saps","tag-un"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95069","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=95069"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95069\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":95669,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95069\/revisions\/95669"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/93134"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=95069"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=95069"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=95069"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}