Honeydew Police‘s highest ranking officers opened up to the residents of Sector 1, honestly discussing their difficulties in the fight against crime at a public meeting on 11 August. The heartfelt moment took place at The Barn Christian Fellowship, Boskruin.
Honeydew Police Station Commander Brigadier Wayne Sirkhot labelled the total area that the station is responsible for “one of the heavyweights of crime”, and admitted that a number of other stations were doing better in their fight against crime than Honeydew Police. “We are far too few officers,” he said. “Honeydew contributes a huge number of house robberies in Gauteng, even in South Africa. We attract a lot of unnecessary people.” However, he commended the Community Policing Forum, which he said is very committed with their trauma debriefs.
Colonel Michochomi Seshoka, head of detectives, said that 13 of the station’s detectives had resigned recently due to an overload of work. He explained that under him are 41 detectives, and each month the station receives 1 300 new cases, and bring between 400 and 600 cases forward from the previous month. Each detective must work on about 75 cases per month. “We are overburdened,” he said. “We are trying our level best.” He explained that detectives work on weekends and holidays, and have to be given rest days. But these rest days “cripple the station”.
Colonel Tobie Terblanche, head of visible policing for Honeydew Police, said that Honeydew Police’s drug team is “very successful”, and made 114 arrests in the whole precinct last month. He also said that operations were underway to detain vagrants and check if they are linked to crime.
Captain Jacques Pretorius, a crime intelligence officer, then discussed the most prevalent crimes between April and June in the sector this year, where they occurred and what contributed to them. House robberies mostly occurred in Randpark Ridge and Sundowner. Rape mostly occurred in North Riding. Theft out of motor vehicles mostly occurred in Randpark Ridge, North Riding and Northgate. Theft of motor vehicles mostly occurred in Northgate and Randpark Ridge. No murders were reported during the period. Sirkhot finished by asking the residents to work with the police by reporting incidents and sharing information with them.
Details: Honeydew police 011 801 8613; Honeydew Community Policing Forum infoho@honeydew-cpf.org.za, 011 801 8576.
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