The Parkview Community Policing Forum (CPF) commended Parkview police for their positive ratings in the efficiency index over the past five months at the forum’s AGM on 12 September at Pirates Club in Greenside.
Station commander for the Parkview Police Station Colonel Theledi Gopane began the meeting by highlighting some of the crime challenges in the area. These included property-related crimes, house robberies and contact crimes. He particularly highlighted the prevalence of common robberies taking place while locals waited for taxis outside of restaurants in the area.
“Our goal is to ensure that the Parkview precinct becomes a safer and more secure environment for the community,” said Gopane.
Due to the heightened number of stabbing incidents in schools across the country over the past year, Gopane urged the forum to establish a school safety forum. In light of the number of crimes against women and children, he also advised the CPF to establish a gender-based violence forum.
Parkview police achieved five stars for crime prevention according to the recent efficiency index, while they achieved only three stars (adequate score) for their detective unit, which according to Gopane is still lacking in terms of its detection rate. They received an overall four-star rating, placing 21st out of 142 stations in the province.
Chair of the forum Geraldine Connell said, “Congratulations, I am happy that our results are looking good. This is a good basis to improve from… We need everyone in the community to realise that they must play a part in preventing crime.”
Connell highlighted the projects conducted over the past year and also discussed upcoming projects for the year ahead. An open day will take place at Zoo Lake on 12 October, providing an opportunity for the community to engage with the police, residents associations and security companies.
The CPF hopes to improve the usability of holding cells at the station to increase conviction and apprehension rates. They also hope to improve crime reporting and the profile of the station in general. They will also seek to improve radio communications between the police and security companies.
Bianca Albertini, head of communications for the CPF, said a major priority of the forum would be to satisfactorily and legally deal with displaced persons in the policing precinct.
“We want to do this properly and humanely,” she said. “The CPF has engaged with the displaced persons unit.”
She added that there was a misconception that shelters were overrun. Albertini encouraged residents to give donations to channelled organisations in the area instead of giving directly to the displaced people, which she believed exacerbated the presence of hotspots in the area.
She concluded that the plan was to assess the needs of displaced people in the area and create safe spaces for them.
Community members who encounter problems or want to assist the CPF are encouraged to email info@parkviewcpf.co.za
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