Cape Town - Thirty-six law enforcement officers have been deployed to 18 schools in gang-ridden areas in a bid to ensure the safety of pupils and a reduction in crime.
The expanded School Resource Officer project was launched by the City of Cape Town and the Western Cape Education Department at Cedar High School in Mitchells Plain on Thursday, and will help identify the underlying issues which could contribute to crime at schools.
The project, supported by the US government, initially started as a pilot project at six schools in 2013. The officers have received training from the (US) National Association of School Resource Officers and two officers will be based at each of the 18 schools.
Their duties will include access control, patrols and search and seizure operations.
JP Smith, the City of Cape Town’s mayoral committee member for Safety and Security, said the officers would have the same powers as police.
“The crime statistics this week served as a reminder of just how long a road lies ahead to achieve the South Africa that Nelson Mandela fought for and dreamt of.”
Some of the officers’ other duties would include developing “safe movement corridors” with the police, metro police neighbourhood watches and other agencies to allow for the safe travel of pupils to schools on agreed routes, helping to curb truancy and developing school-based crime prevention programmes.
Mayor Patricia de Lille said parents should know that their children are safe when they are at school.
She said South Africans were not feeling safe because of criminals.
“We need to turn that around. We need to put the fear into criminals.”
She said some of the schools the officers would be based at were “very dangerous as gangsters go onto the grounds”.
“We will have to look after their (officers’) well-being and give debriefings and counselling when they need it.”
US consul general Teddy Taylor said there were more than 17 000 school resource officers in US schools and the programme had proved to be successful.
Education MEC Debbie Schäfer said she hoped the project would be rolled out to more schools in future.
Cedar High principal David Charles said his school received two officers in July.
“Already there is a trust that has been built with pupils. They are reporting incidents if they see it.”
Some of the areas where the officers have been placed include Nyanga, Gugulethu, Hanover Park, Bishop Lavis, Manenberg and Delft.
Cape Argus