Reporting any act of criminality to authorities allows them to properly and effectively deal with the problem.
So said armed response company Fidelity ADT, in response to this week’s release of the Victims of Crime Survey for 2018/2019.
The Victims of Crime Survey records levels of crime and feelings of safety in the country based on a sample of 27 000 households.
It was released by Statistics South Africa on Thursday.
“It appears from the report that people are not reporting crime to the police.
“Less than half of house break-ins were reported to police and just 60 per cent of home robberies were reported,” said Charnel Hattingh, national marketing and communications manager for Fidelity ADT.
“What the public needs to understand is that by reporting crime you are helping the authorities establish crime trends.
“This in turn leads to better allocation of resources.
“Your crime report could also lead to more arrests as your crime could be a critical link to another similar crime.”
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She said crime reports and trends are established that assist communities and homeowners to make better decisions regarding their safety plans and security systems.
“In the same way, we run the risk of crime levels being allowed to reach unmanageable levels if incidents are not reported to authorities.
“They can hardly be expected to respond adequately if we don’t report crime when it happens,” she warned.
Hattingh also called on the public to show support for local security efforts in communities, such as neighbourhood watches.
“These volunteer patrollers are proven to make a positive difference to any area’s safety.
“They are the ‘eyes and ears’ for the police and for armed response companies such as ourselves, and we can all be safer if we stand together and make our suburbs ‘no go zones’ for crime,” said Hattingh.
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Contact the newsroom by emailing: Melissa Hart (Editor) germistoncitynews@caxton.co.za or Leigh Hodgson (News Editor) leighh@caxton.co.za.
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