On 24 October the Minister of Police Fikile Mbalula released the annual national crime statistics in parliament. Although his briefing to members of parliament was about crime nationally, the statistics covered every station in the country, including a number of police stations in the greater Joburg North area.
The statistics revealed the number and types of crimes committed during the period between April 2016 to March 2917.
“The crime stats are a wake-up call to both the police and the community,” said Brigadier Sammy Thambo of the Douglasdale police. “The community cannot just relax and assume that the police will stop crime, but must also police themselves.”
Thambo urged residents to keep their own safety in mind and to be responsible for the safety of their possessions.
“You can’t just leave your windows open or your doors unlocked,” he said.
With the release of the crime stats, every police station in the country had all the reported crimes during the time period tallied and compared to previous years’ statistics. The greater Fourways area has four police stations: Diepsloot, Douglasdale, Sandton and Midrand.
Crimes reported at each station fell into a number of categories: Contact crimes include murder, attempted murder, assault, robbery and common robbery. Sexual offences include crimes such as rape and sexual assault. The category for crimes detected as result of police action is an attempt to measure the effectiveness of police stations. This category measures the number of crimes that are not reported to police, discovered as a result of the work of police officers.
- Diepsloot Police Station, based in the informal settlement, saw an 8,7 per cent increase in reported contact crimes. A total of 193 more contact crimes were committed from April 2016 to March 2017 compared to the same period the previous year. Sexual offences increased by 19,2 per cent, with 29 more cases reported. The station’s officers managed to detect 426 more crimes through police work – an increase of 163,8 per cent since the previous year.
- Douglasdale Police Station saw a three per cent increase in contact crime with 43 more reported incidents compared to the previous year, while five fewer reports of sexual offences were received which equals an 8,2 per cent decrease. Police detected 6,3 per cent more crime due to police action, which resulted in 64 cases being opened as a result of police efforts.
- Midrand Police Station saw an 11,2 per cent increase in contact crimes with 175 more cases reported, compared to the previous time period. Eight more reports of sexual offences were received by the station during the specified time period, marking a 14,3 per cent increase compared to the previous year. A total of 25 fewer crimes detected due to police effort were reported during the 2015/16 period, which means that the police managed to uncover 3,2 per cent fewer crimes than the previous year.
- Finally, Sandton Police Station investigated 2,8 per cent more cases of common crime which means 42 more cases than the previous year. Seven fewer cases of sexual offences were reported, meaning that the incidence of this type of crime decreased by 13,7 per cent. Fewer crimes were detected as a result of police action, in other words, 116 fewer crimes were stopped via this action than in 2015/16. This marks a 10,3 per cent decrease in this category.
For a more detailed breakdown of the crime stats, please visit www.saps.gov.za
