A WELL attended Bulwer Safety and Urban Regeneration Forum (BSURF) meeting on Tuesday night reflected the concern residents have about crime in their neighbourhoods.
Speaking at the meeting, Heather Roos, chair of the BSURF said the turnout of over 80 residents was something that should be seen every month, and it showed residents were talking responsibility for their own community. She said residents also had their part to play in feeding back to the CPF and police about crime in their areas. Roos said it was shocking that the group had gone from a strong team of 38 patrollers to five women and one car.
“It takes the community to stand together to make a difference. We pay rates and taxes and we need to have a say about what happens in our community. I encourage people to volunteer time to do patrols. There is training coming together with other community watches and we would never put anyone’s life in danger,” she said.
She urged residents to get involved in making the area better by completing surveys on any drug dens or brothels and student accommodation in the area. “We are working on issues, but there are processes to follow and we urge people to complete these surveys to help us gather information,” she said.
Complete the student accommodation survey at https://bit.ly/2tLTBkS and the drug den/brothel survey at https://bit.ly/2vmvji2.
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Lt Col Stanley Perumall addressed residents about crime in the sector, and said serious crimes on the increase and affecting this area included business break-ins, theft of motor vehicles, with 40 reported in January and theft out of motor vehicle, noting 71 cases had been reported last month. He said carjackings were down, with 11 having been reported.
“The criminals stealing vehicles are professional and very quick. We need to ensure our cars are secure, and we need to make it difficult for them to be stolen. Be more vigilant and aware. Regarding theft out of motor vehicle, you create crime by leaving valuable items visible in your cars,” he said.
Perumall said 43 drug-related arrests had been made over the past month, 40 prostitutes had been apprehended and 26 motorists had been arrested for driving under the influence of alcohol.
Residents were reminded to call 10111 in the case of crime, and to contact Metro Police on 031 361 0000 and to always get a reference number.
Roos said residents needed to be extra vigilant during times of load shedding, urging them to increase security during outage times.
“The criminals also know when the power is off and it becomes a huge problem for policing,” she said. In light of this, guest speaker, Graham Robjant, a resident in ZK Matthews (Nicholson) Road, spoke to residents about how he has managed to live off the grid for the past 12 years and how they can survive during power outages.
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