Umhlali police launches ‘Community in Blue’ initiative to combat crime through community collaboration
The initiative takes a collaborative approach to crime prevention, recognising the vital role that residents play in supporting law enforcement efforts.
Umhlali Saps hopes to better collaborate with the community to eradicate crime with the launch of the ‘Community in Blue’ initiative.
Limited resources make working together all the more critical.
This comes at a time when Umhlali Police Station has been named as one of the top 30 worst performing stations in the region, said station spokesperson Captain Vinny Pillay, who is the coordinator of the programme.
Community in Blue is a national programme that sees police work alongside neighbourhood watches and other safety structures, such as the Community Policing Forum (CPF).
The introduction of this initiative will help the police to serve the community efficiently, said Pillay.
Community in Blue held its first workshop last Saturday where more than 30 recruits were in attendance.
Dr Mfuneni Zungu from the iLembe cluster educated the attendees about the inner workings of being a CPF member and further explained what was expected of them.
“Never underestimate the role that you can play in assisting the police,” said Zungu.
The deputy chairperson of the Umhlali CPF executive committee, Josha Daniel, said the goal was to run the programme for the next three years, during which time they will deploy two members in each of the 11 wards in Umhlali.
“The primary focus of the ‘Community in Blue’ is to be the eyes and ears of policing. This is a partnership network which we’re looking at building within the Umhlali Saps,” said Daniel.
To date, the CPF has received more than 180 applications, and is still open for more.
Becoming a CPF member is voluntary and applicants with criminal records can be pardoned if the offense was not severe.
“We have to give criminal offenders with less serious offenses an opportunity to change,” said Pillay.
He further thanked Ballito Crushers and the eThekwini Cheesery for their donations.
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