Despite Sector 3 being under siege from lawlessness, the recent community meeting was poorly attended.
The sector had a public meeting on May 9 at Midrand Police Station and only three community members were in attendance.
Chairperson Marvin Maphiri said this was the lowest attendance they ever had as a sector and urged residents to attend.
In his chairman’s report, Maphiri revealed the stumbling blocks on the various projects that the sector wants to embark on.
He said from 2019, the sector has always envisaged having technological tactical response methods to deal with highly organised crimes.
“We want more advanced tactical response methods of technology use, such as CCTV and drones to help reduce criminal activities happening in our sector. And such technological methods require monetary funding and this has been a challenge in our sector,” said Maphiri.
He said the challenge is that there has been no monetary contribution towards getting CCTV installed on identified hotspots by the sector.
Maphiri added that they have noticed an increase in cybercrime during the 2022 festive season, including website spoofing.
Sector manager Sergeant Ngwako Mathlathla then read out the first quarter crime stats which painted a bleak picture for the sector.
Mathlathla said the contact crimes category which includes murder and attempted murder has been stabilised and no cases have been opened.
“Common assault increased by 100% and robbery increased by 60% which amounts to a total increase of 76.2% in the contact crime category,” said Mathlathla.
He said hijacking remains a huge problem in their sector and Noordwyk was the most affected suburb. Followed by Blue Hills (hijackings), Crowthorne (business break-ins), and Country View (armed robberies).
The sector saw a decrease of 15.4% in property-related crimes.
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