Purpose
– A growing public concern among South African citizens is that of corruption in law enforcement, an awareness of which causes significant tension in the community – police relationship. The purpose of this paper is to investigate how law enforcement corruption influences service delivery satisfaction and public trust.

Design/methodology/approach
– Data from the Victims of Crime Survey 2013/2014 for all nine provinces in South Africa were utilised, yielding a final sample of 25,605 respondents. By means of standard multiple-regression analysis, the study established that corruption statistically significantly influence service delivery satisfaction and public trust.