The rehabilitation of a satellite police station
A Melville satellite police station is currently being renovated by community members of Melville and Auckland Park. Find out what big hopes are for this small station.
The Auckland Park and Melville communities recently combined their efforts to bring back to life the Melville Satellite Police Station.
This is phase 1 of the rehabilitation of this station, found on 80, 1st Avenue in Melville and whose main station is the Brixton Police Station. Its rehabilitation had originally started in February/March of 2020, but Covid-19 affected all plans moving forward at the time.
On the day of the clean-up there were about 40 people, divided into teams that consisted of tree fellers, painters, plumbers, electricians and carpenters, as well as students from the University of Johannesburg who volunteered their time.
Auckland Park Resident Association chairperson Neal Gooch said the day was a collaborative effort between all sorts of community members and state organisations together with provincial police and centred their efforts toward seeing the relaunch of this satellite station.
This satellite station will serve both the Auckland Park and Melville communities. Gooch explained it was important to have this station operational because, as he put it, “Wherever there is SAPS, there is less crime and there is also a quicker response.
The idea is that the sector van will be able to be based here at this satellite and respond to one of the more busier crime areas we have in the precinct. There are 15 areas in this precinct and this is is one of the more busier crime area. Through this we are hoping to run that crime out completely.”
This station will have a client services centre that will serve the community as space where they could open cases, make an affidavit, or get a document certified – making it more convenient for the many people living in this area.
“There are a lot people living in this area and now they won’t have to go all the way to the southern end of the precinct to the main station that is also quite busy,” explained Gooch.
The station will also have a community hall for the community to meet.
To the best of his knowledge, Gooch shared the station had closed years ago due to lack of staffing, interest and resources. Now the hopes are that this satellite station will give opportunity to, among other great benefits, more police staff and an increase in volunteers within the community policing forum and sector crime forum.
Acting Station Commander Lieutenant Colonel Logan Govender said after an approved work study was done it was approved by the provincial commissioner for this station to be reopened. “Now that all the paperwork was out of the way, we needed to come out and be proactive and fix up the place while we are waiting for the resources.”
He added that now that the grunt work is slowly getting out of the way, by the time the official opening takes place, people will walk into a decent place. He thanked all teams that came out on the day and worked tirelessly to clean it up. “What is nice is to have this community involvement.”
A few officers from the Brixton station, along with other staff, were there to lend their hand to the project. “The community is here and busy, we couldn’t sit back and watch them do all the work,” said Govender.
Jonathan Thopmson, who is also part of the Auckland Park Resident Association, is part of the urban management administration and is also the Brixton CPF deputy chairperson, said “This station will be a big win for our community as we are facing a lot of crime in the area and with having SAPS back here, it is going to be a big positive for Melville and Auckland Park residents.”
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