Hi All Concerned about escalating crime . We see that OBSID is being transformed to provide a more efficient service with new energetic leadership and new COO. We see a revitalised ONW and an improved Police liaison and enthusiastic Police officer in direct involvement in our area. OCA is doing its best to facilitate more community involvement to face our broad range of concerns so if we can get more active, we can make a huge difference in the next few months.
I believe we need to take action not in the next few months but rather in the next few weeks. OBSID needs to act as the top up service provider it is mandated to be and tighten its productivity to achieve what it has set out to do. We need to come together to assist and participate to report and to take a step up to regain the control we need to put an urgent stop to the criminal element fanned by drugs and our apathy. I think, in order to break the back on this current alarming situation, we the residents of Observatory, need to both participate directly and add together some donated collected funds to pay for extra ‘stake-out‘ help to put a few extra part time security people on the beat, in our various areas, on foot and on bicycle, to add to the volunteer capacity we have at present. We all need to make the urgent, drastic increased effort required to turn around the apparent recent increase in crime all over Obs. Whatever the facts, some of the apparent increase may be due to increased shared reporting. Other factors may be due to influx from other areas, further problems in rural areas, joblessness, increased patrolling in other areas and possibly the apparent lack of vigilance in Observatory? We know that there was a change in focus by OPS from the previous broad focus over all Observatory towards extra focus shifted somewhat to the central problematic Lower Main Road. While some may have been justified in the short term these services need to be evenly spread with extra effort in hot spots from time to time. I would like to suggest that for the next few months, if in an area of 100 homes, ten people put in voluntary time to patrol for 5 hrs a month, that should be seen as a contribution to the community 5 x R20 = R100 while facing the cold and other inconvenience. The least the other 90 should be doing is to match that with 90 times R100 per month to fund someone to assist in patrolling the areas we live in, so we have increased eyes and ears on the ground for the next two months to break the pattern and then to maintain the new level with a maintenance patrol of 2.5 hrs a month or contribution to others at R20 per hour = R50 per month for a further two months to have time to asses the impact. Maybe others involved in active patrolling at present or those active in ONW would like to look at my proposal and we could come up with ways to provide employment as car guard / patrollers in line with OBSID’s new policies as well as localised support individuals to take on patrol times that volunteers are not managing to cover at present. Maybe our patrol rosters managed by our area leaders could be better responded to by us all via the ONW or OCA management meetings, or via the bank accounts by staff charged with this responsibility and all active community workers would earn an increased partial stipend for their efforts in gratitude... to be covered by others who are not able to do it themselves. We should not be paying for people to wAlk the block at normal times but we can consider it for those do so in times not covered by others. On the other hand starting a service to take care of dogs and offering to walk other peoples dogs for a fee may be something good to stimulate community service at the same time? Lets find something that works at levels we can afford. One thing is certain... none of us can afford being robbed or brutalised and we cant afford crime to become entrenched! We need to put an end to it NOW in a sustainable way. Please help! Marc Turok, OCA chair 2015 From: Bruno Migliorini Sent: Sunday, June 21, 2015 10:17 AM To: [email protected] Subject: Re: [obsnw] Lower Obs (other side of the Railways) very concerned Well then, let's change these ineffective and limiting regulations and let's try to avoid being killed. One of these days, the bullet will come out and it will be too late to react. We pay for security, if we are mugged at gunpoint 2 times per week, sorry but it's a fail. Le dimanche 21 juin 2015 09:54:23 UTC+2, Rose007 a écrit : OBSID is bound to adhere to the regulations/laws governing improvement districts. They do not have the authority to charge whatever levy they deem suitable and their powers are limited. Infringement of any of the regulations could have dire consequences. On Sun, Jun 21, 2015 at 9:19 AM, Bruno Migliorini <[email protected]> wrote: Hi, Every house in Obs pays the same amount every month for Improvement district. Our side of Obs used to be very quiet and somehow reasonable in regards with crimes (a few car break ins, mugging the tunnels under the rails). In the past 6 months, things have gone wild over here: stolen cars, armed muggings, house break-ins, etc. Our wives and kids are not safe anymore! This week only, two armed robberies occurred 20 meters from my house, people got guns pointed at them, nearly same place, twice in a week, at 6pm! Since a year, we have hosted the horse box with security during 4 weeks. That is all in regards with crime prevention in our zone. And it worked perfectly well as all went quiet for 4 weeks. All we get is reactive actions... Wait to face the gun, pray to stay alive, but don't worry OBSID will help you fill the paperwork! I sincerely think OBSID needs to have more power, more patrols, more horse boxes, more contribution from the Citizen. In my own case, the past six months did cost about 60000 ZAR of stolen goods and windows replaced. Hence 10000 ZAR/month!!! I am definitely happy to increase OBSID fee by 100 or 200 or 500 Rands to avoid that in the future. Regards, Bruno -- ---------------------------------------------------------------------- OPS [Obsid Public Safety] - 24/7 control room TEL: 021-447-1066 or 072-063-1653 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- EMERGENCIES: 10111 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- ONW email: [email protected] WEB: www.obswatch.org.za FACEBOOK: facebook.com/obswatch ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Other Useful Obs Numbers: obs.org.za/obsdir 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. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout. -- ---------------------------------------------------------------------- OPS [Obsid Public Safety] - 24/7 control room TEL: 021-447-1066 or 072-063-1653 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- EMERGENCIES: 10111 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- ONW email: [email protected] WEB: www.obswatch.org.za FACEBOOK: facebook.com/obswatch ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Other Useful Obs Numbers: obs.org.za/obsdir 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. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout. --- This email has been checked for viruses by Avast antivirus software. http://www.avast.com -- ---------------------------------------------------------------------- OPS [Obsid Public Safety] - 24/7 control room TEL: 021-447-1066 or 072-063-1653 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- EMERGENCIES: 10111 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- ONW email: [email protected] WEB: www.obswatch.org.za FACEBOOK: facebook.com/obswatch ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Other Useful Obs Numbers: obs.org.za/obsdir 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. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
