Honeydew Sector 1 Community Policing Forum chairperson Greg Pearce has asked residents to stop supporting homeless people, as it often encourages them to stay and commit crime in an area.
He said this at a public meeting at The Barn Christian Fellowship, Boskruin, on 11 August where he and highly-ranked Honeydew Police officers met residents to discuss crime trends in the sector (see previous article).
According to Pearce, vagrants “are here because residents help them.” He explained that the food and clothes donated to homeless people encourage them to stay in an area, and if they do not have jobs, they are tempted to mug or rob people.
“These guys are living in the veld,” he said. “They haven’t got money so they turn to crime. Any opportunity for them, a poor school boy walking home, a cellphone he can sell for R50, that gives him a meal for the day or whatever.”
He asked residents to inform domestic workers that they should walk to work in groups to avoid muggings. Colonel Tobie Terblanche, head of visible policing for Honeydew Police, said that operations are underway to take vagrants from open areas to the station and do profiling and take fingerprints to check if they are linked to serious crimes.
Honeydew Police Station commander Brigadier Wayne Sirkhot said that vagrants are also people and have human rights. “You cannot pick them up and dump them somewhere,” he said. “Along with Metro Police we are doing our best.”
Details: Honeydew Police 011 801 8613; Honeydew Community Policing Forum infoho@honeydew-cpf.org.za or 011 801 8576.
