Warwick Bruce Chapman

Stuart Knight addressed the Westville CPF meeting which I attended last night as a result of crime happening on the N3. Stuart is a practical man with practical solutions. I’ve said before that Africa, and South Africa’s problems are not complex; they just require practical and implementable solutions which are actually put into practice.

While I don’t have a copy of Stuart’s address on hand, the message was clear. The police need as many eyes and ears as they can get; a CPF with 50 members is far less effective than a CPF with 3000 members spilling into multiple sub-forums.

Stuart was chair of the Town Hill CPF for 5 years and in that period they supplied the SAPS with all the intelligence they needed to virtually eradicate crime from their area. Stuart contends that Town Hill police officers arrest far more people these days for minor offences such as piddling in public or crossing the road when the man is red than for the serious crimes of the past.

Another point Stuart made was that CPF’s are not a forum to bemoan the service of the Police. If you have an issue with the performance of your Police station, you need to take that up in the Police service through the correct channels.  If you fail with that, go straight to the station commissioner and speak with them directly but if your intention is to run in there cursing and blinding then expect to be fobbed off.

Stuart’s address was refreshingly practical and possible. All of those people who are either victims of crime or don’t want to be should put a little time and energy into their CPF; feed a little intelligence to the Police; and be more caring toward those who have less than they do and the results may be beyond their wildest dreams.

Things you can do:
1. Attend your CPF meeting and take some people with you.
2. Put all the relevant emergency numbers on your cellphone, make sure you know 10111 and the number of your local SAPS office.
3. Report *anything* suspicious to the police:
3.1. Suspicious vehicles (make not of make, colour and plates)
3.2. Pedestrians with heavily laden bags (make note of clothing, build)
3.3. Any form of suspicious after hours activity
3.4. Crimes which suggest complicity of security companies
3.5. Make a note of the serial number of all expensive electronic equipment which could be stolen so it can be traced; without this pawn shops and dealers in stolen goods cannot be nailed

Most importantly, the number of people active in the CPF must grow. If you have 30000 residents in your area, you want 3000 members of your CPF and all its sub-forums. Those eyes and ears will feed the police with all the intelligence they need to stop crime in its tracks.