FBW keeping you safe while you sleep

The luxury of spending your evenings cosy and safe in your bed should never be taken for granted as it does not come cheaply.

The patrollers of the Florida Block Watch (FBW) spend much of the precious little downtime stalking the streets and working to prevent potential risks from escalating into dangerous situations within their community.

The Roodepoort Record tagged along on one of their weekly late-night patrols and was astounded at the extent of the problems right on our doorstep.

“Almost without exception, vagrancy and drug and alcohol abuse pose the biggest threat to the community,” says FBW committee member Win Schönfeldt.

“The vast majority of people we find on the streets are there because of their addiction to drugs.

“These people are desperate and will do nearly anything to get their hands on their next fix. This makes them unpredictable and dangerous.”

The evidence of this is clear. At every site visited, patrollers came upon proof, like stripped cables and wires, dismantled electrical equipment and stripped cellphones and other potentially stolen goods like watches and even a drone.

The first visit of the evening was to a strip of land owned and managed by Johannesburg City Parks and Zoos along Ontdekkers Road next to the fire brigade.

Clothes hang over the palisade fence right next to where a strip of fence was removed to gain access to the park.

The patrollers call out, identifying themselves, and climb between the palisades, only to be shouted at and pelted with rocks. They push on nonetheless and as they approach, the occupants scatter into the surrounding brush.

An inspection of their belongings that lay strewn under a small clump of Black Wattle trees reveals a hoard of electronic items like stripped cellphones, some jewellery items, a drone (complete in its box), a small baggie of dagga, and other signs of drug abuse.

Patrollers wrap the potentially stolen items and the drugs up and take it with them for handover to the Florida police at the end of their patrol.

The next stop is Len Rutter Park, where one elderly – and sickly – man is discovered sleeping between bushes next to the stream.

“We are very careful to not provoke the people we find like this,” says FBW patroller Casper van der Westhuizen. “We don’t judge people, so we try to be as friendly as possible, but firm. We cannot allow them to sleep rough in our parks as this will just attract more people.”

Patrollers search the man and his goods and offer him a lift to the Dan Street Shelter in the Florida CBD, which he refuses, opting to gather his things and move on.

The Dan Street containers, originally meant as a place of business for informal traders, reveal three men sleeping in filthy conditions, open syringes strewn all over, and among their things, a whole stack of cellphone sim cards still in their store wrappers.

Further inspection reveals a pencil tin filled to the brim with used needles, some with blood in them.

At the Florida Post Office, a man lies sleeping in the hallway between the post boxes. He limps off before patrollers can be confronted.

Between his meagre belongings, patrollers discover numerous pink syringes, alcohol swabs, small distilled water containers, a tourniquet, and a machete.