The Association of Southern African Schools and Departments of Public Administration and Management (ASSADPAM) awarded Dr’s Mary Mangai and Tyanai Masiya, both of the School of Public Management and Administration (SPMA) the 2022 ASSADPAM Emerging Researchers’ Best Paper Award for their paper, The inevitability of a community-policing partnerships aka co-production: A study of the City of Johannesburg. ASSADPAM is a professional network of higher education schools and departments in the disciplines of Public Administration, Public Management, Public Governance and Development Management in Southern Africa. It was established in its current format in 2002 to promote the interests of these disciplines and of the scholars active in these fields.

The award was presented at 2022 ASSADPAM Annual Conference which took place in Durban from 23 to 25 November 2022. The 2022 conference was themed, A call for action: disruptive learning and the future of public administration education and research.

Dr Mangai and Dr Masiya’s award-winning paper, found that the strengthening of police-community partnership is an effective way to reduce crime as it bridges the gap between the police and the community by establishing a mutually beneficial relationship between them. This working relationship enables communities share responsibilities with the police, such as street patrolling and guarding private and public properties to heighten security and safety in their communities.

The research contributes to the practical understanding that a police community partnership is essential in curbing crime, despite its success in Johannesburg being affected by a lack of resources and insufficient support from the government.

“In our research, we found that partnerships that are innovative and inclusive are far-reaching in minimising insecurity in Johannesburg neighbourhoods,” said the authors.

In mitigating the challenges in Johannesburg, the study recommended that the South African government support the police services with the required resources as well as amend legislation, particularly to protect citizens who report criminals.