Deaths at the hands of the SA Police Service (SAPS) fell by seven percent to 797 between April 2010 and April this year, the Independent Complaints Directorate (ICD) says.
ICD executive director Francois Beukman said that of these deaths, 257 were in custody and 540 were the result of police action, such as crime prevention.
Fifty three percent of the deaths occurred at the scene of a crime.
Beukman said 860 deaths were recorded in the previous year.
He said 5869 complaints against the police were lodged with the ICD in the year ended March 31.
The ICD had made 501 recommendations for prosecution to the Directorate of Public Prosecutions.
During the same period there were about 60 convictions of police officers in court and about 90 internal disciplinary convictions.
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