Crime is not of concern to Benonians.
If it were, interested parties would have arrived in droves to voice their grievances to the Benoni Community Policing Forum (CPF).
They would have peppered the police (there was a colonel in attendance) with questions about their plans concerning law enforcement.
Instead, there were 16 people at the Benoni CPF AGM – all of whom were CPF members.
READ:
Community not interested in attending CPF AGM
Not a single member of the public attended the meeting at Arbor Primary School, despite the City Times advertising it a month in advance.
But this is the case with almost every CPF public meeting: there’s complete disinterest from members of the public.
Perhaps there is no need for the forum; after all, don’t we have the police?
But believe me, the public are not shy to ‘request’ the services of selfless CPF patrollers, who use their own money to patrol neighbourhoods to protect these same disinterested citizens.
I am part of a CPF WhatsApp group.
From time to time, community members inform one another of suspicious people or activities.
This is usually accompanied by a “please send patrollers” or a more demanding “send patrollers”.
From what I have seen, the patrollers happily oblige.
READ:
Crime statistics: Over 340 people raped across Benoni
It’s clear that we want safe streets and are aware of the impact and assistance the CPF renders. So why aren’t we present at the organisation’s AGM?
The meetings, as with all CPF public meetings, give you and me the chance to relate our concerns about crime and policing to the forum and the SAPS.
The forum is legislated to fulfill its function and acts as a liaison between the average Joe and the police service.
It also seeks to be the ‘eyes and ears’ in the community and to relate what it sees and hears to the SAPS.
Furthermore, forum members help to back the police up during certain operations and can legally fulfill certain functions under the directive of police members.
The organisation’s objectives, as listed on the Benoni CPF website, are to:
• Establish and maintain a partnership between the community and the police.
• Promote communication between the community and the police.
• Promote co-operation between the community and the police in fulfilling the needs of the community regarding policing.
• Improve the rendering of police services to the community at local level.
• Improve transparency in the service and accountability of the police to the community.
• Promote joint problem identification and problem solving by the police and the community in relation to crime, service delivery, disorder, and poor community-police relations.
• Monitor the effectiveness and efficiency of the police.
• Evaluate the provision of visible policing in the sector area.
• Promote the aims and objectives of community policing and facilitate its functioning.
• Implement projects in the interests of improved community safety.
Their function sounds quite useful to me, to say the least.
If you have been to one of the public meetings, you could argue that they are repetitive, and the police have in the past been criticised for not adequately addressing issues raised on previous occasions.
Be this as it may, if we do not voice our concerns, there is no way we can hold the police service – or the CPF – accountable.
I know my community well enough to say they do care about their town.
The recent protest against farm murders along Great North Road was evidence of that.
READ:
Benoni stands against farm murders
There were hundreds of people who had their say in their constitutional democracy.
Consider this quote from the www.benonicpf.org website: “Crime will thrive and triumph in a community where good citizens… do nothing.”
Do something, Benoni.
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