COMMUNITY POLICING

PREMIER Helen Zille hailed citizens in neighbourhood watches as real heroes, at the Safer Western Cape Conference this week.

“We are prepared to support the reservist programme if you enable us to bring it back.

“Oversight is not seen as a threat, it is seen as help,” said Zille.

Superintendent Stan Gilmour of the Thames Valley Police Station in the UK said they involve the whole community right down to the youth. From the age of nine, children are given uniform and taught about safety and how to run a court.

“This helps, as it is a way of keeping people out of the justice system. I don’t know about here, but in England, prison is a terrible place to be in.”

Cheryl Britz, chairperson of the Knysna Community Policing Forum (CPF), shared how they managed their CPF with the support of the community. They have joint duties with all CPF representatives from all sectors while partnerships, communication, collaboration, and visibility remained key in the fight against crime.

“We offer SAPS our friendship, time and a helping hand. We make this commitment, accepting this is our town and that we have a duty and a role to play in helping to create and maintain a safer environment for our greater community,” said Britz.

Meanwhile, Major-General Jeremy Vearey, the province’s deputy commissioner of crime detection, shared the police’s plan to help prevent gang violence in the community and make it safer. He listed the different gangs as township gangs whereas Cape Flats gangs had identifiable names, were territorial and were embedded in communities.

The police’s objectives are to disrupt gang activity in targeted communities, disrupt the gang criminal economy, construct prosecution ready Prevention of Organised Crime Act case dockets against gangs implicated in specific criminal acts. |