The Midrand Community Policing Forum (CPF) hosted a public meeting at the Midrand High School on the evening of 19 August.
The meeting brought together various stakeholders including Colonel David Mahloromela of the Midrand Police Station, deputy director of the Metro police Mike Smith, Ward 112 councillor Lerato Mphefo and a number of community members.
The Midrand police presented their crime statistics which compared July this year to July last year. Some of the noted successes in their statistics showed that assault with the intent of causing grievous bodily harm had decreased by 50 per cent from last year while common assault had gone down by 4.8 per cent.
A trend that was brought up as a concern was trio crimes, which include house robbery, business robbery and vehicle hijacking, and theft out of motor vehicle.
Chairperson of the Midrand CPF Steven Johnstone said that there has been a concerning trend of thefts out of motor vehicles at shopping centres and car parks. He added that they are calling on the community to not allow their belongings to lie around in the car as well as packing valuables in one’s boot after they park their car.
He said, “There are eyes out there and they are watching you and can see that you are putting your laptop in your boot. Then you get back its all gone. People just need to be educated about it, be vigilant and theft out of motor vehicles will go down.”
The meeting also saw a small presentation from deputy director of the Metro police Mike Smith who touched on their operations in Region A.
He said that they have done a number of road blocks and operations and drunken driving has been an ongoing headache for them with 43 arrests in the past month.
He said that the Metro police conducted 56 roadside checks, attended to 48 by-law complaints and 73 rezoning applications. Smith highlighted the 36 impoundments which included three vehicle impoundments linked to illegal dumping in the area.
He urged the community to take down as much information of these illegal dumping incidents as possible and hand it over to the Metro police.
Details: Midrand Community Policing Forum 011 347 1600.
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