MANY police stations in Johannesburg do not conduct proper sector patrols around the clock.
This was revealed by Gauteng Community Safety MEC Sizakele Nkosi-Malobane in a written reply to questions posed in the Gauteng Legislature.
The prescribed standard is two vehicles patrolling each sector for 24 hours, but according to the reply, which provides information on the Jeppe, Yeoville, Cleveland and Sandringham police stations, this only happens in one out of 13 sectors in the suburbs covered by these stations.
On many occasions, police blame the lack of 24-hour vehicle patrols on a shortage of personnel and/or vehicles.
Jeppe is the worst affected station, as it is short of seven vehicles and 44 staff.
Its area of responsibility has the highest crime rate, with 2 764 serious contact crimes, including murder, assaults and robbery, and 1 492 property-related crimes for the period April 2016 to March 2017.
Cleveland station is short of four vehicles and eight policemen.
Sandringham is short of one vehicle but is otherwise fully staffed, and Yeoville is not short of any vehicles but is short of seven staff.
“My information is that the vehicle shortage is often because police vehicles spend weeks and sometimes months waiting for repairs in badly run workshops. Speeding up vehicle repairs would help, as would filling all police vacancies and using existing staff more efficiently. It is unacceptable that police vehicle patrols are so poor in these areas where people do not feel safe,” said Jack Bloom MPL, DA Johannesburg East Constituency head.
There needs to be a higher priority given to the provision of personnel and roadworthy police vehicles to ensure comprehensive patrols in all sectors, to bring down the crime rate, says Bloom.
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