A combination of entities whose common aim is the fight against crime brought their energies together at a convention held at the South African National Museum of Military History, in Saxonwold.
The ‘cohesion of synergy against crime’ was hosted by the Civilian Crime Intelligence Network (CCIN) a non-profit organisation in the sphere of crime and safety in South Africa. The CCIN was established in 2014 with a primary vision and mission to support, augment, highlight and add value to the existing services and roles provided to society as well as communities, and to build bridges, share resources and break barriers in the overall fight against crime.
After the young volunteers led the singing of the national anthem and an observation of a moment of silence for the fallen heroes, CCIN founding member and executive head, Dr Reza Patel, shared how the network aimed at fighting crime. He clarified that the CCIN is neither the army nor the police but uses innovative information architectures to assist the law enforcement partners and state entities in the fight against crime. “We will focus on the targeted community-specific interventions such as reducing youth violence, gang affiliation and drugs. A nationwide unified community response is critical, as well as service delivery for victims of crime which is taken to a new level,” Patel said.
City of Johannesburg’s MMC for Public Safety, Michael Sun, said the network was a wonderful example of how the government can work closely with the private sector in crime-fighting, thus ensuring that all of us are safer. “We have generally been getting crime stats once a year and by the time an expert comes in to decipher the information, it’s old news. So, under our Executive Mayor Herman Mashaba, we have decided to give residents real time information of what is happening by releasing JMPD (Johannesburg Metro Police Department) monthly stats and progress performance,” Sun said.
He also said that by October this year, there will be an additional 1 500 JMPD officers to patrol the City.
After the MMC had spoken, the attendees made their way outside, to where the seven CCIN N12 Risk Mitigation and Trauma Support vehicles, courtesy of Shahim Ismail, were launched as Sun cut the ribbon. The attendees also got to watch a display by the JMPD’s specialist K9 Unit, of a trained dog tracking explosives. Thereafter, an ER24 team demonstrated a heist and extraction.
Visit the Civilian Crime Intelligence Network’s website at www.ccin.org.za for more information.
