BEREA police have welcomed a new station commander who is ready to lead the fight against crime on the Berea.
A new face in the Durban area, Colonel Nkosinathi Radebe, is ready to bring his leadership and expertise to the Berea where he intends to steer criminals out area. Radebe said the post was his first one in Durban after 11 years as station commander in Escourt. He is ready for the challenge of the city, “I know it is a lot busier than Escourt and I'm prepared for it. I intend to work together with the community to fight crime. I have already met with the CPF and security companies last week and am looking forward to a partnership,” he added.
Radebe said the community should expect some changes at the station especially with crime strategies as he gets more involved after analysing the crime trends in the area. “We will improve on best practices and its just a matter of gearing up to work more effectively. Last week, we started getting our admin staff working more hours outside in the area creating more visibility which will be a deterrent,” he said.
The new station commander has already compared last year's crime statistics to this year from April to August. “I have noticed an increase in crime and the biggest challenge seems to be car jacking, theft of motor vehicles and house robberies which are traumatic crimes. “We need the community to be on board to be vigilant and observant of their surroundings. Also, stop supporting beggars on the street corners or intersections because some are fake and just posing as beggars with the intention to commit crimes on unsuspecting victims. Rather use the correct channels and organisations to donate towards the homeless,” he explained.
Another problematic trend Radebe spotted was business people depositing cash at night. “We want to discourage businessmen from depositing large sums of money at ATMs at night. There is a task team investigating Trio crime working with other safety organisations such as Metro Police and various security companies,” he added.
While he was happy to hear of many crime watch groups in the area, Radebe encouraged them to send information not only to members of their groups but to police as well. “Follow up if you give us information, don't be discouraged, you have the right to follow up on any information given. We want to win this war on thefts and syndicates from outside of our area operating in the Berea policing precinct. So if you observe any suspicious movement, report it to us so we can stop crime before it happens,” he added.
Radebe encouraged the community to install CCTV cameras if they could afford to as the cameras not only helped as a crime deterrent, but also helped to identify perpetrators of crime. “I am looking forward to getting the Berea to be a crime free area, in line with our National Development Plan and to break the chain of syndicates working in the area,” he added.
The veteran police officer has been in the SAPS for close to 26 years. He garnered much success as a Lieutenant Colonel station commander in Escourt, including the second best station out of 45 stations in the Midlands area in 2006/2007, the number one most improved Captained station in KZN in 2007/2008 and the best Lieutenant Colonel Station in KZN in 2010/2011.
The family man is a father of four children and always wanted to be a policeman. “As a boy I'd always wanted to be a cop. I grew up and started my training in 1990 and later did a Diploma in Policing, my B-tech and a host of internal courses. I worked as a detective in 1993 till 1999 where I enjoyed working on many cases but one that stands out was the murder of a family, the father, mother, son were killed in Kranskop and I arrested all seven suspects who were convicted in the High Court,” he said.
