This paper examines the issue of public trust of the South African Police, and attempts to identify the
factors that predict the public’s trust in the South African police. Utilizing a national probability
sample collected by the Afrobarometer Project in 2008, the study uses logistical regression analysis to
look at the effects of selected independent variables on trust of the police, which range from
demographic indicators like race, rural-urban, gender, age and education. Others were derived from
responses to a series of questions which ask about fear of crime and criminal victimization. Scales are
also developed which measure poverty, interpersonal trust and perceived corruption. To preview the
findings, the logistical regression revealed four significant predictors of mistrust of the police:
interpersonal trust, perception of corruption, race and the poverty measure. Based on the literature
review there were some surprising findings, including the fact that fear of crime and victimization as
well as what may be defined as police visibility were not found to be significant predictors of trust of
the police, nor were demographic measures like education, gender or age. The paper concludes with
some thoughts on future research directions.