Differences between metro police and Leap officers queried
MANDATE differences between the City’s metro police and the Law Enforcement Advancement Plan (Leap) programme came under the microscope when the City’s Safety and Security Directorate presented its Metropolitan Police Department’s Annual Police Plan to the provincial legislature.
Standing committee on community safety member Ferlon Christians (ACDP), himself a former law-enforcement officer, said: “Your unit is so small and you’re running a 24-hour service, so you must have a skeleton staff. Is there a need for metro police to exist? I see your mandate and I see your powers, but I can’t understand how 565 operational officers makes sense when you have LEAP with almost 4,000 officers in the City of Cape Town.”
Fellow committee member Mesuli Kama (ANC) asked about the metro police’s access to CCTV camera coverage in the city’s high-crime areas.
Meanwhile, committee chairperson Reagen Allen (DA) and member Peter Marais (Freedom Front Plus) asked questions about the metro police’s enforcement of City by-laws, particularly regarding the issue of land invasions.
With respect to City by-laws, metro policing director Robbie Roberts said there were challenges when it came to illegal occupations and they had to be aware of the Prevention of Illegal Eviction from and Unlawful Occupation of Land (PIE) Act, especially when structures had already been put up.
“We accept that the fight against crime cannot be won by any single entity operating in isolation and therefore place great value and importance on embracing collaborative partnerships with various internal and external role players such as SAPS and many other agencies, including our communities.
”The Cape Town metropolitan police places substantial emphasis on the ’broken window’ approach.:”