Trust in the police has dropped in every province of South Africa.

There was a time when more than 60% of people in the Northern Cape, Free State, and Eastern Cape said they trusted the police. But in a survey conducted in early 2025, not a single province recorded trust levels above 30%.

Nationally, trust in the police has nearly halved, from 41% in 1998 to just 22% in 2024/25, according to the Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC) report National and provincial trends: Trust in the police, 1998-2025.

“While provincial levels and trajectories have varied, the trend points to a deepening legitimacy crisis for SAPS across the country,” the HSRC says. “Historically higher-trust provinces are converging downward towards the levels of deep scepticism observed in Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal.”

“The risk is that low and diminishing confidence in the police, if left unchecked, will also continue to negatively shape views of key elements of police legitimacy,” warns the HSRC.