Community effort to safeguard Summerstrand
EYES, ears, hands and heart.
That’s what it takes. Plus plenty of pluck, perseverance and commitment towards a shared vision.
In our case, the end-goal is that of a safe and secure environment for all students and residents living in, and visitors to, Summerstrand.
We’re not there yet, but together we’ve made inroads in beating crime and corruption in this upmarket beachfront suburb.
And we’re hopeful that our proposed “safe green route” – a demarcated high-traffic volume route to be consistently monitored to allow the safe passage, particularly of pedestrians, in Summerstrand – will soon be realised.
We’re hopeful because we are working as a team – not individually, but together as the Summerstrand Community Crime Group, pooling our ideas, resources and communication networks towards the shared goal of having a safe neighbourhood.
Student and staff representatives from Nelson Mandela University, concerned Summerstrand residents groups, the Humewood Police Forum, the Beachfront Safety and Security Forum, Pearson High School, a private security company, the ward councillor and the metro police meet monthly to share feedback from their respective portfolios and to plot the way forward together.
That’s as it is now, but in the beginning – about 18 months ago – there were just three of us.
The catalyst for forming the Crime Group came in the form of a letter to this newspaper countering a news article that implied the university cared little for its students following a spate of student muggings early last year.
The welfare of our students is paramount.
One student mugging is one too many and there had been 11 in a matter of a few days.
We care. As do many others, which is why the authors of this article connected to express concern and scratch their heads over what could be done to tackle the growing scourge of crime in the suburb.
With close to 10 000 students living in the surrounding suburbs and even greater numbers of homeowners, many of whom provide accommodation to students, it made, and makes, sense to work together towards a safer suburb. By connecting, we’ll surely all benefit. Staff and student representatives from the university met the BBJT, a group of Summerstrand residents living adjacent to Pearson High School who had set up their own crime watch initiative, as well as the Humewood police, in March last year to plot the way forward.
With each month, support for the group has grown, along with the pooling of our resources.
We share technology, cameras, patrol vehicles and communication networks to make ourselves more efficient and effective. It hasn’t always been easy. We’ve had to negotiate the pros and cons for different options in defeating crime, turn deaf ears to the naysayers and overcome egos.
The goal of defeating crime is so much bigger than any one individual.
In fact, we’re bold enough to say that it’s only a collective integrated community approach that will stop crime.
We know this because we’re beginning to see the results of our shared efforts.
According to security company Atlas, there were 210 incidents of crime in Summerstrand between January and July last year.
This included 69 break-ins, nine armed robberies, nine house robberies and nine assaults.
That figure was more than halved in the following 10 months.
From August last year to May this year, there were 54 criminal incidents, including 23 break-ins and three armed robberies.
However, any criminal incident is one too many, so there is still much work ahead.
Yes, pluck, perseverance and hard work is a must.
But when you have the “eyes and ears” of those who live in the area operating too, then the effectiveness of your efforts start coming together.
The use of social media, and in particular WhatsApp groups within the various sectors of Summerstrand, has had a positive impact in both averting possible crime and in alerting the authorities to unfolding events to enable arrests.
Those “eyes and ears” extend to technology too as different sectors of the suburb have pooled their money to fund more than 20 cameras which are monitored by the university’s and Atlas’s operation centres.
Hopefully all four key access roads to the suburb will soon have cameras with number plate recognition capabilities.
An official list of “suspect” cars means the moment such a vehicle enters the area, the authorities can be alerted.
An emergency tower with cameras, a panic button and the capability of two-way communication has been erected at the entrance to the alleyway between Admiralty and Bradley roads, notorious for muggings. It is now operational.
It’s these such towers, already so successful in averting crime in Cape Town, which the group wishes to include on its proposed green route.
Once in place, along with the proposed dedicated patrol service, then students, residents and visitors will all be encouraged to use the route for their own safe passage.
We’re not there yet in beating the likes of organised crime, negligence, apathy and even dishonesty in making false claims, but we’ve started the process because we care.
We care for homeowners who, for example, are fearful of being burgled or robbed, for visitors who are cheated of their money through card skimming and students who are afraid of walking alone because of the scourge of crime.
And because we care, we’ll continue our shared efforts to restore Summerstrand to the safe student, tourist and residential suburb it once was.