As part of an ongoing series in ways that Hout Bay can improve: A Better Hout Bay
Hout Bay has made huge strides in decreasing crime levels, especially with the formation of the Hout Bay Neighbourhood Watch. For three years of my life I was deeply involved at leadership level of that organisation as the inaugral chairman (jointly with a true gentleman, Mr Colin Enzer) and I spent a lot of energy focusing on the challenge of crime.
Through the very simple method of informing people about the crime that was occuring, and how to prevent it, we were able drop certain types of crime by as much as 76% from previous levels.
Not many areas talk openly about crime, in fact in neighbouring areas your neighbour could suffer a home invasion and you wouldn't even know about it. By deciding to take our ostrich heads out of the sand we were able to inform people that forewarned is forearmed.
Unfortunately the downside of this bad publicity is that some people think that Hout Bay has worse crime levels than areas that don't talk about it. Visit police stations in other areas and you will soon find that the crime patterns are similar if not worse.
The HBNW is still run very effectively, with some of the same tireless individuals that were there from the beginning. The secret has always been the strong cooperation between the police, private security companies and the communities as a whole. The HBNW model has been used with great success all over the country.
To me one of the most satisfying achievements was that crime dropped dramatically in the poorer areas as well. In those days probably 70% of all crime occured in those areas. I am sure that this is probably still true today.
I must point out here that I am no longer in any way involved in the leadership of the neighbourhood watch, which allows me to make a few points that are in no way endorsed by the HBNW, and that they typically would not be allowed to make under the rather strict confines of the constitution and relationships between the Community Police Forum and the South African Police force.
The fact though is that until we can address the root causes of crime, it will always be a feature in our lives. We can all agree this is a long term challenge. What frustrates me immensely, and thus makes it obvious that I should include on this list- are the short term solutions that are not being applied.
First of all I want to make it perfectly clear that in my experience the vast majority of crime is committed by a very small percentage of the population. The reality is that the crime fighters are even aware who the criminals are. They arrest the criminals only to see them back on the streets in a matter of hours or days.
Sometimes this is as a result of ineptitude, with dockets being lost or incorrectly completed by the police, but more often than not the system falls down when the criminal is processed by the legal system.
It is no exaggeration that repeat offenders have been arrested for similar crimes dozens of times within the space of a year. Many of these habitual criminals are well known by their community and even by the police. (It must be said that many arrests are made thanks to community tipoffs)
I have personally been to court dozens of times, and experienced high levels of frustration. Often criminals are released because witnesses cannot afford to take yet another day off work hoping the courts will get to the suspects in time. The flipside is that some suspects spend months in prison waiting for their trial. By the time they are called the chances are high that dockets have been lost or witnesses lost interest.
Hout Bay needs its own community court with its own magistrates and even community leaders. The public should be able to attend hearings. Communities need to get behind crime prevention.
Another problem is that not all crime is reported. It can be a real hassle to go and make a statement and then appear in court, that unless insurance is claimable many people don't bother. We need opportunistic criminals to learn from an early age that they WILL NOT get away with any crime.
Sending criminals to our prison seems to do the opposite of rehabilitation. I would prefer a more public punishment such as community work.
Employment creation and povery alleviation should be the focus of all crime prevention efforts. Rehabilitation efforts should include skills training. Employment- Local is Lekker
Talk about keeping employment in Hout Bay- almost none of the police force here live in Hout Bay. There are not very many choices when it comes to accommodation on a policemans salary, but I strongly believe that accommodation can be built. We need policeman to get out of the cars, stop wasting four hours a day getting to and from work and start patrolling the streets on foot. Police need to earn respect, not at the end of a baton and by brute force, rather by having an positive effect on the communities where they live and work.
Drugs are a scourge in the poor areas particularly. The communities seem to have the will to want to remove the tik dens and the "gangsters." It can't be money- how much cheaper would it be to have a preventative drug squad than to employ more police to tackle the fallout.
Why then does there not seem to be the political will, or is it courage, to stand up against it? Please don't tell me it is a money thing!
In my opinion if you were to effectively tackle substance abuse crime levels would drop by another 40%.
Well, thats my little crime rant- probably easy for me to say. I have so much respect for our cops- we just need more of them. A bigger presence and a focus on community policing is definitely something we could do better at.
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