Linden CPF wants you to be a CIB patroller
The forum is inviting community members to be the change they want to see their community by forming part of the patrollers programme.
Do you want to make an active and positive contribution to your community? Why not consider joining Linden CPF’s Community in Blue (CIB) patroller programme?
According to CPF member, Annelize Tichauer, the aim of the programme is to establish a network of this forum’s patrollers covering the entire precinct to act as an extra set of eyes and ears on top of the existing layer of police officers and private security company vehicles as well as the many residents associations’ security WhatsApp groups.
This CPF would like to launch with the first phase team of 40 patrollers, 10 per sector as a start with a steady increase of members as soon as phase one is up and running.
“The CPF CIB patroller programme gives residents wanting to give back to their communities a structured and safe framework to work in. The key is that we all know exactly what our suburb looks like, we know when a vehicle or a person belongs and when not,” she said.
Tichauer added these patrollers will conduct regular patrols with the aim of spotting anything that looks out of place. In some cases, it will be an open gate or strange vehicle parked under a tree. While on these patrols they will use closed communications channels linked to the Linden Police Station command centre and private security companies on duty.
Tichauer said these sort of programmes are paramount to the community, as it is about the bigger picture. The forum wants the programme to include issues of practical disaster management, “Every year we have fires in our parks that can easily spread to the neighbouring houses. In the presence of fear and chaos, coordinating an evacuation plan is only possible with a team of briefed and trained patrollers, who know exactly what to do to enable the first responders – like police and EMS and other security and emergency services to get to where they are needed.”
With so many elderly, vulnerable and frail residents within this precinct, many of whom live alone, this CPF’s sector forums are said to be hard at work within various residents associations to establish a database of frail, elderly and vulnerable residents, “The CPF CIB patrollers would be able to do a quick check in during patrols to make sure that everyone in our precinct is safe.”
In areas such as Windsor East and West, Tichauer said this patroller team would make a massive difference. As she described, these suburbs do not have a high number of security companies or vehicles present in the area. Having a team of CPF CIB patroller vehicles driving around, and calling in what seems out of place, will be a huge step in the direction of taking back their community from criminal elements
Residents stepping up to become patrollers will be given training by both the police and the Department of Community Safety, to educate them on the exact rules that need to be adhered to as well as the responsibilities that they will be required to perform.
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