Cape Town – The City of Cape Town and Western Cape Government has successfully deployed a further 100 Law Enforcement Advancement Plan (LEAP) officers to the streets of Cape Town and has launched its newly established LEAP base in Bishop Lavis.
Since its inception in 2019, the LEAP has deployed 1 100 new officers who have been deployed to areas with high crime rates which include Delft, Nyanga, Khayelitsha (Site C), Philippi (inclusive of Hanover Park), Bishop Lavis, Mfuleni, Harare, Gugulethu, Kraaifontein, Mitchells Plain, Atlantis, Philippi East, and Samora Machel.
The official ceremony was attended by Western Cape Premier Alan Winde, Cape Town Mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis, MEC for community safety and police oversight, Reagen Allen, and mayoral committee member for safety and security, Alderman JP Smith.
Winde said the deployment of the new officers will bolster safety in communities in line with the provincial safety plan.
“Seeing all these new recruits joining the ranks of their colleagues gives me hope for a safer future. We need as many women and men in blue, not just patrolling communities where they are most needed to deter criminals, but also building relationships with our citizens and re-instilling faith in the fight against crime, which has been so eroded by years of SAPS mismanagement,” Winde said.
He said placing more LEAP officers in communities is just one aspect of addressing crime.
Winde said while they do not have the core mandate, local government is taking the next step toward the devolution of policing powers from national government to the province.
“The plain fact is, under the national government, policing is failing, and we need to urgently change this. The Constitution is on our side in terms of devolution – in fact, the Minister of Police can easily give us the responsibility already, if he cared about our residents. We have the zeal and the concern of our residents in mind, to dramatically improve law enforcement through devolution,” Winde said.
Statistics have shown Law Enforcement has tripled its arrest rates with 50% of arrests being drug-related.
As of July 31, LEAP officers made 8 500 arrests since the first deployment in February 2020.
Over 220 firearms have been removed from the streets.
According to Hill-Lewis, the City is also investing in more than 230 new Law Enforcement and Metro Police officers this year and hundreds of millions of rand in crime-fighting technology in the city – from cameras to drones to gunshot location technology.
“While there are many brave SAPS officers, the police are vastly under-resourced and need our help to start winning the fight against crime. We are steadily asserting our crime prevention role on behalf of everyone who feels the impact of violent crime eating away at their sense of safety and comfort. We all have a constitutional right to safety, freedom of movement, and dignity – and crime quite literally robs us of that.
“Thanks to expanded powers for our officers, we can now go beyond by-law enforcement to tackle drug, gun, and gang-related crime.
“I am convinced now, more than ever, that we need to devolve even more powers to our municipal police. With more local policing power we can bolster the SAPS even more, and reduce crime in our City. In the coming weeks, we will be stepping up our efforts to take on more policing power for our law enforcement and metro police,” Hill-Lewis said.
All LEAP officers have undergone all required training which includes Peace Officer training, obtaining a Traffic Warden certificate and training in the City’s by-laws.
“Our officers are dedicated, well-trained and care deeply about the communities that they serve which for many, are the very same communities they grew up in and live in today.
“We have 100 law enforcement officers here today who represent the bigger cohort of officers, who are currently deployed in the City and are removing firearms and drugs from our streets as we speak. We want to show you who the people are that are out on the streets every day, making a difference to our safety.
“As the City, we need to continue to do more to support our LEAP officers so we have invested in improving the facilities where our staff work from. This Bishop Lavis facility is an example of our commitment to making sure our staff have the best resources to work from,” Smith said.
Allen said the fourth quarter crime statistics of the 2021/22 financial year bears testament to the importance, need and effectiveness of LEAP officers.
He said for years Nyanga has been known as the murder capital of South Africa, but since the deployment and intervention of LEAP officers, that is no longer the case.
“The area of Gugulethu was a regular on the list of top 30 murder stations across the country, but due to LEAP’s intervention, it is no longer there. These, along with other successes are directly linked to the strategic deployment of LEAP officers.
“We’re grateful for all our partners, which include SAPS, the City, our neighbourhood watches, Community Policing Forums (CPF), private security and recognised safety structures.
“If we’re to be more effective in fighting crime, we need to be more organised and have much greater co-operation. My call, therefore, is to unite against crime and work as one towards achieving safer communities,” Allen said.
The LEAP base in Bishop Lavis was formerly a housing office but has since undergone a revamp.
According to the City, a CCTV control room will soon be operational from this facility to monitor the area and assist with convictions and despatching of officers to incidents.
The base has its own Emergency Policing Incident Control Centre where staff can track and monitor live operational data.
The facility has also been fitted with solar panels to protect it from blackouts implemented by Eskom.
The City has allocated a record R5.4bn Safety Budget in 22/23, with funding for 230 more officers this year, and R86m for CCTV and new crime-fighting tech in 22/23. The City is adding dashcams, bodycams for officers, and drones to its operations to the tune of over R85 million over the next three years. Over the same period, R66m has been budgeted for expanding the City’s law enforcement training college to produce more officers.
A Facility Protection Officer unit is also set to be launched by the City, the 80-officer team will be deployed to protect front-line service delivery staff and key municipal buildings.
Western Cape Government is backing this with a R712m LEAP investment to date.
For the 22/23 financial year, R400m has been budgeted which brings the investment to over R1bn, as well as separate funding for the City’s K9 Unit.
City of Cape Town has also stepped up in resourcing local neighbourhood watch groups with further training and equipment with R5.6m.
Western Cape Government is resourcing neighbourhood watches with R5.7m.
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