South Africans have become accustomed to media reports alleging the involvement of policemen or ‘people dressed in police uniforms’ in serious crimes. The South African Institute of Race Relations and its Unit for Risk Analysis have become increasingly concerned at the number and nature of these reports. To try and determine the scale of the problem, the Institute assigned a researcher to source as much information as possible on the involvement of police officers in committing crime.

The results were alarming. The Institute consulted journalists, media reports, and information from the Independent Complaints Directorate (ICD) . Within a week, a list of over 100 separate incidents alleging and/or confirming the police’s involvement in serious crimes was drawn up.

The Institute’s researchers stopped looking for more incidents after compiling this list of the initial 100. The 100 incidents do not include reports of petty crimes, poor service delivery, or the soliciting of small bribes by officials. Without exception, the 100 incidents identified in this report are related to very serious and often violent and pre-mediated criminal behaviour. These included ATM bombings, armed robberies, house robberies, rapes, murders, and serious assaults.