According to Waters, the police station currently has four sectors and can provide only two visible police officers per sector.
“This, while they are supposed to have four visible police officers per sector per shift, resulting in a shortfall of 19 visible police officers,” he said.
“In addition, the station requires an additional five vehicles for visible policing.”
The benefits of having adequate visible policing, said Waters, is that it acts as a deterrent for would-be criminals to carry out crimes, it ensures a quick response to crimes being carried out and it improves the arrest-rate of suspects.
“By preventing crime before it occurs, the number of cases our detectives have to investigate is also reduced, which allows them to investigate crimes more thoroughly, which is currently not the case,” said Waters.
“At the moment the average number of cases each detective is investigating is 52, which exceeds the maximum number of 45 cases a detective is supposed to have at any given time.”
Waters will be writing to Minister of Police Nkosinathi Nhleko, requesting an urgent increase in resources required by the Boksburg North SAPS.
