Cape Town - Crime has fallen in the Cape Town CBD because of increased patrols, according the Central City Improvement District (CCID).
Criminal activities falling under priority crimes in the central business district remained low in recent months, which reflects the successful apprehensions.
The CCID said priority crimes like street robbery, burglary and vehicle-related crimes or assaults only accounted for 26 of incidents for July this year. Last year in July, there were 93 incidents, which showed a 27% decrease.
CCID Safety and Security manager Mo Hendricks said: “We have been very successful in apprehending perpetrators of these crimes while working with our main partner, the police.
"We have managed to maintain low levels of crime in the CBD even though there are many more people in the city centre now than there were during level 5 of lockdown.”
He said the main problems in the CBD stem from antisocial behaviour in the form of aggressive begging, drug use in public, homelessness and the erection of illegal structures.
“While there has been a slight increase in crime incidents in certain crime categories since lockdown started at the end of March, the number of contact crimes has not increased nor have the crimes considered to be a 'priority' in the Central City,” he said.
G-Force Security owner Aneez Gierdien said: “The crimes are stemming from people who continue to go hungry. They end up robbing someone for something small, possibly a wallet to buy themselves food.”
He said although criminals may have become a little bit less daring, people should be wary of "guys going around scratching in bins in the CBD because it’s a ploy to scan the areas".
Hendricks said: “We have seen an increase in crimes such as shoplifting, solicitations, possession of stolen goods and possession of drugs.”
According to the CCID Safety and Security department, a total of 117 incidents of crime were recorded in the Central City in July this year compared with 164 in July last year. This is a decrease of 29%.
The CCID also reported that there was one incident of possession of stolen goods and two of shoplifting.
Cape Argus