I am coming late to this debate, so apologies for not responding sooner. Having been a member of the Safety Committee for Obsid since the start, I would like to just communicate some of what we have been doing.
We have had two security firms providing Obsid with patrollers in the last 5 years. We did not renew the contract of the first provider due to numerous concerns we had about the way in which they were operating. We replaced them with the same firm that provides security to GCID and Woodstock CID, with the reasoning that this firm understands CID's and also provides continuity with our neighbours. Also, our current provider has a strong commitment and obligation to operate within the law. As much as people might want the car guards or anti-social homeless people to go away, Obsid and our current provider will not countenance illegal behaviour on the part of the patrollers to achieve this aim. We have comprehensive programs to work with these people to help them get back on their feet again. We will not take them around the corner and bilksem them to discourage them from coming back; as Trev points out, its a path to losing liberty which we won't be a part of. The mandate of Obsid is to provide policing support in the public open spaces in Observatory. We are trying to do what we can with limited resources to make the streets safer. We cannot provide a security blanket over the whole of Observatory, including people's property. The sad reality of life now is that everyone should properly secure their own personal property against criminals. This means not leaving valuables in cars, burglar barring or alarming your houses, properly securing property when you are not there, etc. We have seen a marked increase in crime over the last year or two in Obs. While there are people who would like to blame our current security provider for this, I must also point out that crime all over Cape Town has risen, as the official SAPS stats also show. We have had many discussions with our current provider about crime in Obs and how to combat it. We had seen a massive deterioration in the crime situation on LMR due to the unchecked drug dealing going on there, primarily in the Trump Towers area. The fact is that our foot patrollers were not able to deal with it. They are unarmed (because we do not want the risk if them being assaulted or killed for the weapons they carry, and we also do not want the risk of shootouts that could hurt innocent people), and really struggle to deal with hardened criminals. While ordinary people may feel safer seeing someone wandering around with a uniform on, there is not strong evidence that foot patrollers really had much of an impact on reducing crime. However, there is strong evidence that intelligent policing does have an effect on crime, which is why we decided to pilot the camera network. Please read this article, there are many like it on the web (this specially references whether "bobbies on the beat" actually make a difference): http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-17704354 We focused on LMR initially because that is the key hotspot where we want to reduce crime. We kicked off the camera project on 15 September. This is when our foot patrollers were reduced from around 5 daily to around 1-2 (depending on time of day). The vehicle patrollers are still there (both of them), and we have an officer manning the cameras. We have already seen a reduction in criminal activity in LMR as a result of this. We are working with SAPS, and we are passing evidence to SAPS that we are picking up from the cameras. Investigations are being done as a result of evidence we have presented. If we really do manage to make an impact, we will hopefully roll out more points to other hotspots in Obs. Once the initial network is established, adding more points is not a massive cost. Has there really been such a massive increase in crime in the last month in the rest of Obs? Because that is when the foot patrollers were reduced. Or are people unhappy that crime is rising in general, over a longer period? If there has been a rise in the last month, I hope everyone is reporting it to us or SAPS so we see it in the stats! But we cannot stop this problem in one month. It takes time and we are confident we are making progress. This is not to say that we are doing a wonderful job that no criticism is justified. But I hope that what I have put down above provides some information. Our AGM is next week, Saturday 1 November. I am not sure what the process is around registering as a member, but please contact the office if you want to join Obsid. We would love to have more members and more debate on this issue, and we would love to have more people involved in the security of Obs. The Obs Neighbourhood Watch really struggles to find people to volunteer to help. Please contact them as well if you want to contribute to fighting this scourge. Justin Ashley Past Chairperson, current Vice-Chairperson, Obsid -- OPS [Obsid Public Safety] - 24/7 control room ---------------------------------------------- 021-447-1066 072-063-1653 For all emergencies please dial 10111 ---------------------------------------------- ONW: 082 081 0142, ONW email: [email protected] WEB: www.obswatch.org.za ---------------------------------------------- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups The Observatory Neighbourhood watch group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at https://groups.google.com/d/forum/obsnw?hl=en --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "The Observatory Neighbourhood watch" group. 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