Continuity and stamina are necessities in wearing down criminal elements.
Prior to the panic of the riots, Florida Police’s efforts to curb criminality was producing weekly successes. Under the ‘Operation Meerkat’ banner, Colonel Amos Tsotetsi led an entourage of police, JMPD, private security and community policing forum members on another lengthy combing of the streets of Florida and surrounding suburbs.
As had been the case a week before, this Friday July 9 initiative would focus on the hotspots notorious for breeding crime in the Florida policing precinct. Starting at 9:00 and concluding their work at 15:00, the most noteworthy success was another mass confiscation of illegal mining implements. Additionally, two arrests were made – one for possession of dangerous weapons, and one for theft.
Among the illegal mining items that were confiscated were seven phendukas, three homemade explosives and two matchboxes containing an estimated R50 000 worth of gold. A roadblock conducted along Odendaal Road produced R9 500 worth of vehicle-related fines from the 121 vehicles and 222 occupants who were searched. Relentlessly, Florida Police will continue their mission through ‘partnership in policing’.