Plettenberg Bay Community Police Forum
Neighbourhood Watch
One of the functions of the CPF is to set up neighbourhood watch committees. To this end, in consultation with the SAPS, Plettenberg Bay Town has been divided into 12 neighbourhood watch administrative areas and a series of meetings are being conducted to appoint a co-ordinator and assistant co-ordinator in each of the 12 areas whose function it will be to:
- Co-ordinate neighbourhood watch activities in the area.
- Receive communications from the CPF and pass such information on to his neighbourhood watch members.
- Receive relevant information and concerns from his neighbourhood watch members and communicate such information to the CPF for onward transmission to the SAPS.
Recommended Activities of the Neighbourhood Watch Committees
- Together with other members of the NW in the area speak to as many residents in the area as possible and encourage them to join the NW. The more people who are involved, the more effective the activity will be. The co-ordinator should keep the name, address and contact details of all members for ease of administration and communication.
- Build a working relationship with the SAPS sector manager W/O Taylor so that the co-ordinator is able to ascertain SAPS requirements and activities. This relationship with SAPS also serves to build confidence in and communication with the SAPS. To this end the relevant contact details are as follows:
- Sector 1 Manager-W/O Taylor-0798941645
- Police Patrol Van-0798941646
- Police Emergency (Station)-10111
3 . Encourage the members to be observant (watch) in relation to their area, their property and their neighbours property. The biggest disability of the SAPS is lack of numbers i.e. a shortage of eyes and ears. A primary function of a neighbourhood watch is to do just that “WATCH” and then report any concerns to the SAPS such as:-
- A suspicious looking character who is simply wondering the streets;
- An individual who is in an area in which he has no just cause to be at that particular time.
- An individual going door to door begging or looking for a job. In reality most of such people are looking for opportunities to commit crime.
- Even someone you just get an uneasy feeling about.
- Dogs barking who do not normally bark in such a manner.
- A car driving slowly through the neighbourhood in suspicious circumstances.
- Any other form of suspicious behaviour.
- Report such activities to the Police and they will respond even if it turns out that there is no need to be concerned. They are grateful every time a concerned resident makes a report. Only too often after a crime has been committed the police speak to someone who says “I saw someone suspicious in the area”. They prefer this type of information before a crime is committed.
4. Organise your members to undertake periodic street patrols either by vehicle or on foot. Ideally this should be done on a regular basis with small groups of members allocated to patrol on a roster basis but even periodic patrolling makes a significant difference. In areas in which regular patrolling is taking place there has been a significant reduction in crime levels.
5. Contact the Sector Manager and seek his guidance and co-operation in carrying out extensive periodic patrols in your area. This will probably involve the Sector Manager requesting that vehicles be located at observation points to communicate any activity to the SAPS. There are radios available for this purpose.
6. Members may periodically be asked to participate in joint patrolling exercises such as the centre of town or the beach during busy periods to protect our visitors and make sure that their experience of Plett is not marred by being subject to criminal activity. You may also be asked to periodically partake in an exercise to “blitz” a particular area in which criminals have become active.
7. Get to know your neighbours and their movements. Keep an eye on one another’s homes.
8. If a member of a NW in the CBD or commercial area such as the Kwikspar Centre:-
- Keep a watch out for any suspicious characters or vehicles coming into town or hanging around the town. If you see anything suspicious take a picture of the person or vehicle with your cell phone or digital camera. If there is an incident then you will have something concrete to pass on to the police. Criminals in our town need to feel “WATCHED”.
- Organise patrols on a roster basis-a walk up and down the street in the area of your business.
- Speak to your staff and enlist their support in keeping a watch in the vicinity of your business. They are often very discerning in spotting suspicious characters and situations.
- Build a relationship with and look after the car guard who operates outside your business and encourage such guard to report any suspicious movement to you.
- In conjunction with the car guard prevent youngsters from acting as car guards and harassing members of the public. In so far as is possible make it an unattractive proposition for such persons to operate outside your business including educating your customers that they must only give donations to legitimate identity card carrying guards in Bitou Tourism uniforms.
- Put up signs in your establishment advising patrons not to give money to arbitrary car guards but only those who are properly appointed identity card carrying car guards.
- If you do not have a car guard outside your premises during business hours, speak to Bitou Tourism. There are plenty of persons who belong to the Car Guards Association who are looking for opportunities. If you do not do so, the criminal element will move in and undertake the duties whilst they look for opportunities to commit crimes. If you are a restaurant or night club owner consider giving the guard a lift at least part of the way home after completion of his/her duties.
- Discourage locals and tourists from giving money to beggars. The youngsters bunk school to beg and use the money to buy drugs. If anyone feels like donating money there are very good local institutions such as Mazimane who will be very grateful for the donation and make sure that it is put to good use.
- The more we can “clean up” our streets, the less crime we will have.
- Keep an eye out for any customer or person parking in the vicinity of your business who leaves valuables in sight in the vehicle. Encourage such persons to place valuables in the boot. Laptops and other valuables on the seats of vehicles constitute easy and lucrative pickings for thieves.
If we want a town in which we feel safe and our visitors feel at ease when they visit owing to low levels of crime then we all need to play a role. If Plett becomes known as a “safe” and “crime free” town where visitors are not hassled, the result will be greater number of visitors and residents with enhanced prosperity for all. Eliminating crime has to be one of the primary initiatives in making Plett a more prosperous town.
Play your role in making Plettenberg Bay the safest place in South Africa. If we all play a role this objective is achievable.
A very smart and reasonably priced uniform has been designed marked “Plettenberg Bay Community Police Forum”. I believe in visible “policing” to let the criminals know that we are watching and mean business and to let visitors to our town know that we are making the effort to keep them safe and secure. Please encourage members to buy either part or the whole of the uniform comprising a cap, a golf shirt and a jacket so that we have the appearance of an official organisation. This will make us far more impressive and have far greater impact than unidentifiable civilians taking a stroll down the street. Those who are interested, please contact me.
Bruce Richardson
Chairman
Plettenberg Bay Community Police Forum
0769569165