Cape Town - Despite facing struggles with resources and funds, the Bishop Lavis Community Policing Forum (CPF) received an award for excellence from the provincial police.
SAPS Western Cape held its Excellence Awards at the weekend where Provincial Commissioner Lieutenant-General Thembisile Patekile and officials honoured officers and civilians who showed “extraordinary commitment and service delivery in their respective lines of responsibility”.
Bishop Lavis CPF chairperson Graham Lindhorst was one of the recipients of awards at the event where the CPF were acknowledged for their commitment and dedication in the community of the Bishop Lavis policing precinct.
“Members of the CPF are instrumental as they are the mouthpiece of the community. They are engaged with the station management on a regular basis,” police spokesperson Joseph Swartbooi said.
Bishop Lavis CPF deputy chairperson Amanda Davids said they won the award for being third best in the province, an accolade they were very proud of.
“We are very very proud of the award, just that they recognised what Bishop Lavis is doing. In 2017, we came to a point where there were 17 murders in two weeks and that's where we came together and said enough is enough.”
The community then held a march and planted crosses at every kill site, and called the police minister to the area, she said.
Davids added: “We needed help because their plans were not working so we worked on our own safety plan.”
“We then brought all parties together like social development, law environment, local police etc. Our station commander had meetings with prosecutors to discuss what we needed to do to stop cases from getting struck off the toll. It was really SAPS and the community working together. We started street committees and neighbourhood watches, foot patrols. That’s how we got the murder rate to go down because we could get the guns before it was being used.”
Their biggest challenges were funding and resources, for printing pamphlets, petrol, calls, among others.
Davids encouraged others to get involved in their community.
“I would definitely encourage anyone to join your local CPF because you cannot complain about crime if you are not doing anything about it. If you want something to change, you need to be the change.”
Cape Times