The analysis above has indicated that the objectives of South Africa's community policing policy have changed over the past eight years, from an initial emphasis on oversight of the police through a focus on relationship-building and the creation of partnerships to help improve police services, towards a much greater concentration on community mobilisation for crime prevention. Further, the analysis indicates that implementation of this changing policy has focused almost entirely on the functions of the CPFs.

However, it is clear from the very limited public reach of these structures that implementation of the community policing policy has not been effective in relation to its common core goals—ensuring wide-ranging input on community needs and priorities, improving police responsiveness to these needs, and developing a common public responsibility and capacity for addressing crime. This is mostly attributable to the continuing lack of meaningful and systematic support from the state, although this is required by legislation.

Thus, in their current form and functioning, the CPFs are poorly placed to draw participation and support from community-based organisations or other local role-players, and to mobilise participatory community crime reduction initiatives.

Public safety, security and policing in the SAPS priority areas therefore remain a long way away from being seen as a common responsibility, or everybody's business. They remain in the perception of the general public, still very much 'police business'.

However, it appears from the views of the police and the public, that much of the basic business of the police has been improved.

Methodologically it is difficult to attribute this improvement to the implementation of the community policing policy. This is because, firstly, implementation of the policy has been ineffective with regard to its primary focus, the functions of the CPFs; and, secondly, there is no data by which to compare current police services and public perceptions with those that existed prior to the implementation of the policy.

What is more certain, however, is that together with South Africa's democratic constitution and a range of other measures associated with the country's democratisation—like the establishment of parliamentary, departmental and independent oversight structures—the policy has succeeded in opening a previously closed organisation to greater public scrutiny, study and interaction. It is this opening, as well as the political emphasis over the past three to four years on improving service delivery in all government departments, to which one may more plausibly attribute improvements to basic police services.