The chair of Parkview Community Police Forum (CPF), Geraldine Connell, reflected that although 2020 had been a year of very few face-to-face meetings, a lot had been achieved by the forum.
Connell said, “Taking advantage of the lockdown, the CPF created an online survey to find out what residents wanted from the South African Police Service (SAPS) and the CPF in order to make them feel safer.
“About 2 500 people responded and the results show that 86 per cent of people feel unsafe walking alone at night despite the fact that they have all done something to protect themselves against crime. Two thirds of respondents indicated that they hardly ever see any SAPS members patrolling their suburb and many requested more visibility and more patrols.”
She added that several participants also commented that they would like to see greater communication among the police, the forum and the security companies operating in the precinct. “About half of the people trust SAPS and are satisfied with how their cases were handled by SAPS as well as with SAPS’s service in general. The survey results were used to create the Community Safety Plan which can be found on the CPF webpage.”
The chairperson said when some Parkview police members became infected with Covid-19, the forum initiated a fundraiser to help all the members to stay healthy during the pandemic. “The response from the community was incredible,” said Connell. “Within a week they had contributed about R50 000 and we were able to supply each of the 120 members of SAPS with three months’ supply of immune-boosting vitamins and minerals.”
According to Connell, the Victim Support Unit had remained very active through lockdown and had assisted many victims to overcome the trauma of being attacked.
Commenting on the latest trends in crime, Connell said, “We have seen a huge increase in cell phone snatching after lockdown. Furthermore, the criminals stealing the phones are very smart and aggressive. They are now able to use the apps on the phone to access the victims’ bank accounts and in some cases have emptied those bank accounts.
“The minute your cell phone is stolen, you must immediately block access to all bank accounts and report the theft to SAPS so that we have a record of all the crime in the precinct.”
Details: Parkview CPF www.parkviewcpf.co.za; info@parkviewcpf.co.za or visit the Parkview Community Police Forum Facebook page.
