Social media is considered a double-edged sword, with both positive and negative effects. A qualitative research approach was adopted to explore the extent to which and the ways in which South African police use social media in the study area. The findings were collected through semi-structured interviews with 22 participants comprising the South African Police Service (SAPS) officials in the Giyani Cluster policing area. The findings indicate that criminals in the Limpopo Province use social media to commit crimes in the country, other countries in Africa, and elsewhere. The findings also indicate that social media is used to bring positive attention to law enforcement agencies and aid in criminal investigations. Although the positive impact of social media was highlighted in these experiences, persistent problems and challenges also featured in the data. Finally, officer insights were drawn upon to make recommendations for future policing policy and research. This paper concludes that social media as a tool can be utilised in terms of data gathering, prediction and spotting broader patterns, for combating organised crime by the SAPS.

The objective of this study was to explore existing insights on the use of Community Policing Forums (CPFs) for crime prevention, focusing on the Brooklyn police station in South Africa. With the adoption of the phenomenological research design and the qualitative research approach, about Ten (10) participants were selected purposively at the Brooklyn police station, various data collection methods, such as the documentary sources and unstructured face-to-face interviews, aided with the application of direct observation technique was employed. The inductive Thematic Content Analysis (TCA) was employed for data analysis. The findings of this study revealed that the larger part of Brooklyn police station’s officials portrays a professional image despite this demanding career. However, participation on the ground level based on crime prevention actions is not always viable. By utilising the consulted studies and empirical data, three (03) recommendations for policy intervention are made. Firstly, respective communities should urgently avoid paying for the crime prevention private services to provide detailed crime information to the local SAPS. Secondly, the local ‘Private Security Companies’ should collaborate with the CPFs and SAPS to aid the failing crime prevention responsibilities, while working on the restoration of SAPS’s trust by the local community members. Thirdly, the SAPS management should consider persuasive strategies such as frequent education and training of community members and their officials [Undergoing refresher courses], relating to community safety initiatives and implementations of legislative frameworks and policies.