Big brother joins Mother City crime arsenal

Hi-tech tools deployed in fight against gangsterism

BIG Brother is watching you, Capetonians.

South Africa’s second-largest metropolitan municipality by population is investing heavily in sophisticated technology that is taking law enforcement and policing in the suburbs and city to a new level.

Airborne drones, non-lethal weapons, gunshot location technology, electric bicycles, linked smart cameras, and tablets and cellphones that gather data and intelligence are some of the tools being added to the city’s crime-fighting arsenal.

Cape Town mayoral committee member for safety and security Jean-Pierre Smith — whose traffic police and “ghost squad” have confiscated more than 10 000 cellphones from texting or talking motorists in less than four years — is leading the charge.

“We have to find creative ways to deal with our problems,” he said this week.

“It’s a real war zone out there,” he added, pointing to Hanover Park on the Cape Flats, where a trial run using gunshot detection sensors recorded 3 200 shots in 17 months.

The small, gang-ravaged suburb is home to about 45 000 people. Dozens are maimed or killed in the crossfire each year, such as primary school pupil Riyaad Kader who woke up paralysed in hospital after a bullet smashed into his spine in 2011.

A R21-million tender to roll out the acoustic crime-fighting technology in Hanover Park and Manenberg was awarded this month to US firm ShotSpotter. The technology can pinpoint the location of a shooting, instantaneously directing police to the attacker, victims and witnesses.

“It’s a game changer. Our recovery rate of firearms increased by a factor of five” when it was tested, said Smith. The system identified an R4 rifle smuggled into the area when it was test-fired.

Smith, a DA councillor, has drawn criticism for his no-nonsense approach to policing and bylaws, such as one making provision for a dog owner whose pet barks for more than six minutes an hour to be slapped with a fine.

He famously had a fellow DA councillor arrested over outstanding traffic warrants and was lambasted after metro police manhandled a blind busker, Lunga Goodman Nono, in the city centre.

But he is determined to expand his city force of 3 000 law enforcement officers, traffic and metro police and has resisted the plans of the national government to integrate them into the national police.

“I need at least 4 200 to 4 800 to do a meaningful job,” he said. His directorate has a budget of R2.7-billion.

A hi-tech “immersive, wraparound training environment using multiple projectors”, used by law enforcement agencies in the US, is being purchased.

Lawmen will soon be equipped with 3 000 “rugged” — damage-resistant — smartphones and 1 000 tablets that will link them electronically to a new, custom-built computer dispatching system which will track movements and guide them to incidents at the “click of a mouse”.

Smith said his team “understands what it is and how it will help them, even though it will spy on them” as a performancemonitoring tool.

Greyp electric bicycles have been tested by the city to increase patrollers’ mobility. The bike has a top speed of 70km/h and a range of 120km on a single 80-minute charge. “It’s quiet, knows no fatigue and can be lifted over obstacles,” said Smith. The bicycles could complement existing modes of transport such as horseback, motorcycles and Segway electric scooters.

The city has also just spent R5.5-million on a riot vehicle with a water cannon capable of clearing away burning debris during protests, a project criticised by Cosatu’s provincial secretary, Tony Ehrenreich, as a bid to silence service-delivery protesters.

Three drone operators are being trained in anticipation of the aircraft — which can be fitted with cameras and sensors — being used to complement the suite of crime-fighting tools. The city has budgeted R3-million to test drones before buying any for law enforcement, fire fighting, disaster management and a raft of other uses, such as inspecting infrastructure.

A network of smart cameras that identify car registration plates is also expanding rapidly around city suburbs.

We have to find creative ways to deal with problems. It’s a real war zone out there

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