The main objective of this discourse is to reflect on how the apartheid police legacy and negative police sub-culture influenced the present police system in South Africa. This study was carried out within the South African Police Service structures in the Western Cape, Free State and Northern Cape provinces of Republic of South Africa. This study relied mainly on secondary data sources and oral interviews conducted among a purposively selected sample of 27 officers identified from the selected provinces for data gathering purpose. Among other findings, this study revealed that the pre-democratic police legacy and negative police sub-culture still have an influence on the proper execution of police powers and functions and the implementation of pragmatic police principles in the present South African democratic police regime. There have been a copious carry over and re-inventing of some of the apartheid police practices su