The south african policing ‘nexus’: Charting the policing landscape in durban

Throughout the world, including in South Africa, there is a growing recognition that the state police are but one actor within a hybrid policing field involved in the production of security. How exactly this mix works at micro levels, and through what processes and with what outcomes requires a great deal of investigation. Based on an ethnographic study of two distinct local initiatives that illustrate the ‘nodal’ character of security governance, this paper explores the broader question of how the public police are, and should be, locating themselves within networks to ensure the delivery of ‘good’ public security outcomes. The authors advance a conception of ‘minimalist’ policing — one centred on re-affirming and bolstering the unique authority and capacities of the public police — as a possible normative guide to the design of optimally effective and democratic nodal arrangements.