The dismissal of Maj-Gen Jeremy Vearey, purportedly for bringing the SAPS into disrepute on social media, raises critical questions about the nature of the police in a democratic SA, the rights of public servants to express themselves and leadership and strategy within the SAPS. I wish to explore the latter, fundamental, issue in the context of a police service struggling with its own identity, an inability to deliver the safety and security to which the public is entitled and the critical imperative of transformation...