Last night (23 February) the Krugersdorp Cluster Police had a major crime prevention operation in Sivewright Street and the surrounding area, causing an array of blue lights to lit up the infamous street.
Sivewright Street in Luipaardsvlei is notoriously known for its drug and prostitution presence.
A crime prevention (or clean-up) operation is part of the National Crime Prevention Strategy based on a shift from reactive crime control, which sees police deploying most of its resources towards responding after crimes have already been committed, to proactive crime prevention that is aimed at preventing crime from occurring at all.
Police officers patrolled the streets and pulled over cars, requesting drivers licenses and your reason for being in the area. Police were present from 6pm until about 10pm.
The News drove through Sivewright Street and was also faced with inspecting officers, both undercover and in uniform. When asked what the operation was hoping to result in, a police officer referred to the clean-up of drug dealers and also referred to foreign nationals in the area.
According to Krugersdorp police spokesperson, Sergeant Tshepiso Mashale, the operation did conclude with a few arrests but the official report will soon be released to the News who will update its readers.
In September last year, a group of police members met at a house in York Street, a street away from Sivewright Street, where they made one of the biggest drug busts worth R283 000 to date.
Last year on 21 May the police also swooped over the area and it was reported that a total of eight sex workers who admitted to doing drugs and prostitution were taken into police custody on the day for questioning.
In 2014 on 9 February two foreign nationals were among four people who were arrested following the same operation.
Read more:
• Owners losing the battle against drug and prostitution trade
• New drug town solution, could it work?
• [VIDEO] Documentary shows Kdorp’s sad decline into drug hell
