City to deploy neighbourhood safety teams
THE City of Cape Town’s safety and security directorate has started conducting physical and written assessments for recruits who will be central to a new strategy to help drive down gang and drug-related crime and other social problems, the city said.
The city would start training the first batch of recruits for its neighbourhood safety teams (NSTs) initiative later this month, Mayco member for safety and security; and social services JP Smith said. This initiative was designed to take the city’s safety and security interventions in crime hotspots one step further by ensuring a constant presence in areas plagued by gang violence and associated social ills, he said. Since 2006, the city had instituted a number of interventions in support of the fight against violent crime, which was the primary responsibility of the SAPS.
This included specialised units such as the metro police gang and drug task team and the special investigations unit; introduction of school resource officers in conjunction with the Western Cape Education Department; neighbourhood safety officers to provide “bobby-on-the-beat” policing; ceasefire/cure violence interventions; shot spotter gunfire detection; introduction of the law enforcement stabilisation unit; training and equipping neighbourhood watch organisations; and the introduction of the informant management and reward system.
The city had identified the 10 policing precincts with the highest crime rates to roll-out the neighbourhood safety teams initiative and it was envisioned that between 90 and 120 personnel would be deployed to expand the existing enforcement interventions, while also enhancing social investments through social development projects. For the current financial year, a R20 million budget had been approved for recruitment, training, and deployment of law enforcement staff in Hanover Park, Philippi, and Delft. “The neighbourhood safety teams will allow the city to offer relief from the ongoing gang violence in a sustainable way. It’s important to stress that this is not a purely enforcement-driven intervention, but one that takes a whole-of-society approach.” – ANA