CCPO founding members make way for new team

EDITOR – The CCPO as we know it was initiated by Quinton Rutherford in early 2007 after the senseless murder of Sam Wyer, a well-known Amanzimtoti resident.

Quinton Rutherford, a local Amanzimtoti businessman and resident, realised crime was spiraling out of control and something needed to be done about it. Quinton held a meeting at his residence and rallied together support from his neighbours in Athlone Park. Richard Allkins was one of these concerned residents. Quinton arranged for money to be collected so that a bicycle guard could be hired from a security company to patrol the streets around their families’ homes.

Call CCPO direct when crisis strikes

This worked incredibly well as the crime in the patrolled area stopped almost immediately. While at a social get-together with friends and also local businessmen Marc Grobler and John Lewis a week or so later, the three discussed and agreed that if this was working so well on a small scale, that there was no reason why it could not work on a much larger scale, possibly even for the entire footprint of Amanzimtoti and its immediate suburbs.

Work started immediately with Quinton Rutherford, Marc Grobler and John Lewis meeting with Norman Reeves of Combat Group to negotiate his assistance. Richard Allkins, Bruce and George Lithgow, George Snodey and a few other local businessmen were drafted in to strengthen the initiative and to fast-track progress. This in essence formed the basis of the first committee, with each member putting their individual strengths to work.

The CCPO has grown from strength to strength over the past nine years

Cindy Rutherford, although at this time not officially on the committee, worked tirelessly with the help of Harris Management Services (HMS) to investigate and put together the Section 21 company and piece together the accounting structures, while the others set about putting a name to concept, drafting a business plan, vision statement and spreading the word to quickly gain the support of whoever would listen.

Community Crime Prevention Organisation (CCPO) was decided as the most appropriate name for the organisation, branding the slogan ‘creating a safer place to live work and play’. By May 2007, after the drafting in and generous support of Combat Group, a community meeting was called at Toti Civic Centre. The community meeting was a huge success with hundreds of concerned citizens filling the hall to listen to what this new organisation had planned to combat the town’s rising crime. The idea to draft in the support of Combat Group, although risky as the CCPO had no funds of its own, was to show the community that changes were being made by having a security presence visible on the streets before the community meeting was even called. The gamble paid off and within a month, the CCPO was up and running. With the overwhelming support of the community in the way of donations, free service offerings, newspaper media coverage and sponsored office equipment and so on, the CCPO was now a reality with an accounting officer, admin clerk and a security service provider that shared the CCPO committee’s vision of a pro-active policing concept that was to work in conjunction with local law enforcement.

The CCPO has grown from strength to strength over the past nine years, accumulating in excess of 4,000 members with the most success being realised in the past five years with the committee of Q Rutherford, C Rutherford, J Lewis, M Palframan, P Jooste, P O’Neill, under the leadership of chairman Richard Allkins, the administrative leadership of Fran Cole and operational leadership of Leon Joone. This team has built solid relationships with all emergency services and with the support of the current service provider partners, Blue Security and Securiserve, the CCPO has been recognised as one of the largest and most successful private policing organisations in SA. In addition to the day-to-day success of the operational team, which is evidenced by the stats produced in fighting local crime, the CCPO has been recognised nationally and received the following accolades over the past five to six years, which they are extremely proud of:

The prestigious Ethekwini Mayor’s Award for innovative security solutions; featured more than twice on Carte Blanche; best security service provider in the South Coast Sun’s Readers Choice Awards for five years running; South Coast Chamber of Commerce business against crime campaign: Presidents Award 2012.

best security service provider in the South Coast Sun’s Readers Choice Awards for five years running

After nine great years, the time has now come for the long-standing committee members to stand down and make way for a new team, some of whom (George Snodey, George Lithgow and Rob Mill) have served short terms on the committee over the years and subsequently have a good understanding of the vision and objectives of the CCPO. We would like to take this opportunity to thank all who have supported us over the years, from the community meeting at the civic centre nine years ago, to the recent AGM where the new committee officially took the reins. A big thank you to Richard Allkins who has agreed to stay on to ensure a smooth handover as the former chairman.

As the outgoing committee we wish the new committee good luck and are extremely confident that this new team will maintain the high operational service levels that the CCPO has become known for and behind the scenes, maintain the sound and liquid financial state of the Section 21. Through continued careful administrative management, it is hoped they possibly even grow the CCPO to see further positive acknowledgements and an even stronger financial status by growing memberships and increasing the pro-active security presence in the designated footprint.

Quinton Rutherford, Cindy Rutherford, John Lewis

POWER AND RESOURCES IN NUMBERS