Cape Town - Mitchells Plain residents have reported the highest number of crimes since the beginning of the year.
This was revealed when Police Minister Bheki Cele announced the crime statistics for the first quarter of 2021 on Friday.
The statistics reflect crimes that occurred from January 1 to the end of March 2021. They will show the crime levels when the country was under lockdown level 3 and adjusted level 1 due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
The crimes stats showed that out of the whole country, the most community-reported serious crimes in the Western Cape were at the Mitchell’s Plain police station and the City Central police station.
Compared to previous years, there were fewer crimes reported to the Mitchell’s Plain police station, and this is likely attributed to the impact of lockdown.
During the same period last year, residents reported more than 2 500 incidents of criminal activity.
A similar trend has also happened at the Cape Town Central police station where 1 392 fewer cases were reported compared to the previous year.
This year, there has also been an increase in the number of criminal activity that has been detected because of police action in Mitchells Plain.
Crime detected as a result of police action is usually not reported to the police, but is largely dependent on the deployment of law enforcement personnel and employment of intelligence.
The stats revealed that there was a 27.4% increase in criminal incidents being detected due to policing in Mitchells Plain.
There was also a 23.0% increase for Kleinvlei police station.
Interestingly, however, is that compared to other years, Sea Point police station recorded a 65.9% increase in the number of crimes detected due to policing, which is the highest it has been since 2016/2017.
This is also the highest increase out of the whole country.
The full crime stats can be accessed on the SAPS website.
Do you have something on your mind; or want to comment on the big stories of the day? We would love to hear from you. Please send your letters to [email protected].
All letters must have your proper name and a valid email address to be considered for publication.