Durban - Community Policing Forums are still upset at being sidelined by the police during the Covid-19 nationwide lockdown period.
The eThekwini Outer South Cluster CPF chairperson, Aidan David, took a swipe at the Ministry of Police’s statement on Sunday, that announced there was a decrease in serious and violent crimes since the lockdown began.
“It is obvious that crime statistics will drop drastically during the lockdown because it’s a lockdown. How can the minister compare an era of lockdown to an era of no lockdown? I hope he is not feeling good about his officers, thinking that they did anything great towards these statistics that he is comparing,” David said.
Analysing the crime and comparing the first week of the lockdown to the same period in 2019, Police Minister Bheki Cele confirmed that murder cases had dropped from 326 to 94; rape cases dropped from 699 to 101; and cases of assault with intent to do grievous bodily harm had dropped from 2673 to 456. Carjacking, hijacking and business robbery dropped from 8853 to 2098.
Cele also welcomed the drop in the number of complaints against the police during the lockdown.
“The decrease in the number of complaints, which were high over the first days of the lockdown, reflects stabilisation and confirms that people are now beginning to understand the lockdown, and are complying with the regulations. People are now co-
operating with the members of the law-enforcement entities,” he said.
David agreed crime had decreased, but was disappointed to see that Cele had not acknowledged the CPFs as partners to the police and essential service providers to the communities.
David said it was predominantly noted that the CPFs were the watchdogs for the police.
“Now that we have been sidelined and considered non-essential to the SAPS, who is there to complain to if the police are doing their own thing on the streets? Let us compare apples with apples. We are also learned people who should be given the respect that we deserve for assisting in getting our community to stay off the streets during this lockdown,” David said.
Bluff CPF vice-chairperson Andy Rossell agreed that crime was down at present due to the lockdown and concurred with David.
“We are very concerned with the number of people not abiding by the regulations. The majority of these transgressions are on the outer boundaries of ward 66. We still remain very concerned with the slum houses in the Fynnlands area. One of the houses in Kingsclere Road has about 50 inhabitants. Drinking, drugs and prostitution, and many visitors are frequently visible,” he said.
Sydenham CPF spokesperson Satish Dhupelia said they were happy with the drop in crime.
“We are aware that this is just a temporary reprieve that will last as long as the lockdown does, so it is no cause for celebration as the problem will return,” he said.
Dhupelia called on the SAPS, and every municipality to embrace technology with live monitoring of areas through CCTV cameras, facial recognition software, greater recruiting, and fingerprint access controls to alert the SAPS if a wanted suspect has accessed a building or area, and more qualified staff in crime detection at stations.
Phoenix CPF spokesperson Umesh Singh said they noticed the drop in crime in nine days.
“Community members are active and still use the CPF and its structures as a medium to report defaulters, who are not complying with the lockdown rules. Phoenix SAPS is doing an excellent job thus far, and we hope we can sustain the low crime rate,” Singh said.