Sea Point police station’s spokesperson,Captain Elizabeth Munro, believes increased joint operations between South African Police Service, City entities, law enforcement, Metro police, traffic services and private security companies is what it will take to decrease crime in Sea Point and Green Point.
This follows the release of the annual crime statistics by Police Minister Bheki Cele last week.
Both the Camps Bay and Sea Point policing precincts have seen a decrease in burglaries at residential premises.
This, Captain Munro attributes to the fact that police had identified and arrested a group that was responsible for committing house robberies in Green Point and Sea
Point.
Chairperson for the Community Policing Forum (CPF) in the area, Heather Tager, said the difference between 2016/17 and the current stats for 2017/18 was minimal.
She said the stats were based only on reported crime and Sea Point’s crime was mainly property-related and developments in the areas made it hard to prevent crime.
“Crime in this area is mostly opportunistic, is theft out of motor vehicles is down, however, too many people leave items in their vehicle for the eye to see.
“We feel that the numerous developments taking place within the area pose a further burden on policing and crime prevention,” said Ms Tager.
On the slight increase of sexual offences in Sea Point, Ms Tager said that most sexual offences were perpetrated by suspects known to the victim.
“This category is then investigated by the Family Violence, Child Protection and Sexual Offences Unit (FCA) and not the local police station,” she said.
Captain Munro described this category as “not policeable”.
While the Camps Bay police station saw an increase in theft out of motor vehicles and drug-related crimes by 32 and six cases, respectively, the Sea Point police station saw a decrease in these offences. Captain Munro said this could be the result of crime awareness, visible policing, and drug dealers feeling threatened by the frequent visible policing.
Ms Tager stressed the importance of partnership policing. “It is vital and hence joint operations together with other stakeholders were ongoing, resulting in numerous successes.
“The Sea Point City Improvement District with the CPF initiated the License Plate Recognition Camera Project which has led to many arrests for crime, not only committed in this area but other areas as well. The police continue to actively plan interventions based on crime patterns,” she said.