By the 1880s, with the failed recruitment drive and disbanding of the Natal Native Police Force, the prime structure of policing in Natal once again refocused on local magisterial authority. Yet, local and colonial officials continued to fail to understand the African constabulary or their place as one of the most consistent and resilient elements of colonial security in Natal. Often, they either diminished their importance or misidentified their functionality in the closing decades of the nineteenth century. Such was the case in 1894 when the supervisor and conservator for Zwartkop Location submitted a request to the resident magistrate for greatcoats and shirts for the ‘Native Police’ under his supervision. The magistrate, however, seemed unaware that the supervisor had any police. In his response to the request, the resident magistrate of Umgeni noted that ‘these men are really forest rangers’ and therefore did not qualify for police supplies. While easily dismissed as a miscommunication, this confusion highlights that even this late in the process of police institutional formation in Natal, there remained a level of fluidity in deciding who was and was not ‘native police’ within the structures of the colonial government.