January Members update

January 2024 was the fourth month of CID programme operations.  The year started with a bang, with 39° heat and close to 4 000 people enjoying New Years Day on Clifton 4th, 3rd, and 2nd beaches, with around 300 more on Glen Beach. The roads were totally gridlocked.

The CID team was up for the challenge and delivered well in all programmes.

Community feedback to the CID has been overwhelmingly positive, with much appreciation being expressed for our visibility, responsiveness, impact, and reliability. It’s been a good month!

During the month, we handed 9 suspects over to SAPS, attended to 26 crime incidents, 81 bylaw violations (in support of law enforcement), recovered stolen property, reunited lost children with their parents and prevented the theft of 2 vehicles.  We enjoyed consistent law enforcement presence in the CID precinct – and the combination of our technology, on the ground intelligence and human resources assisted law enforcement in the enforcement of a range of bylaws.

The team had some notable successes in January 2024.

In early January 2024, the CID public safety team noted individuals moving between the coastline and areas of vegetation after dark.  On investigating, they discovered 2 individuals in wet suits.  SAPS detained them for questioning and our officers searched the area the individuals were seen in, locating bags of poached sea life. This was also handed over to SAPS.

We are so proud of our team’s commitment to the Clifton area! 

We’re very proud of our public safety team, whose excellent instincts and observational skills on Wednesday 24thJanuary 2024 led to the arrest of 4 individuals implicated in remote jamming of cars as well as card fraud.

Our officer noted a vehicle parked whose occupants behaved strangely when they noted his approach.  He took down the registration and alerted our surveillance center about his concerns.  The License Plate Recognition database returned a positive response related to an incident in Melkbosstrand late in 2023.  Our team alerted Law Enforcement who were in the area, they pulled the vehicle over and conducted a search – locating both remote jamming equipment and a card scanner.

This really illustrates the impact of the integration of all elements of the CID public safety programme -people, technology, systems, and partnerships.

 Two bag snatchers were apprehended by our team and the bags recovered – one apprehension preventing the theft of a motor vehicle by a group of people who were later tracked via License Plate Technology to the Deep South and disrupted there.  Another great example of the role of technology and systems in public safety work.

Our cleaning teams (including our work-based rehabilitation team) worked tirelessly throughout the month, filling 1 433 bags with refuse from the public spaces, including the green belt between Victoria and Kloof Roads. We also assisted the City of Cape Town with keeping Maidens Cove clean and tidy.  The team also tackled graffiti tags.

Our greening team worked along the lengths of Kloof, Lower Kloof and Victoria Roads, also assisting with dump runs to dispose of the items left on the street by residents and visitors.

Funded by the CID and a Public Employment Programme (PEP) grant from National Treasury, this programme is proving its worth – both in terms of impact in the community through the stewarding and cleaning of the coastline and the green belt, and in terms of impact on the lives of individuals who participate in this programme.

The programme is designed to assist people to exit the streets into shelter and provides individualised psychosocial services, work and earning opportunities and job readiness skills to individuals who previously lived rough in the public spaces of Clifton.

The programme has been operational for 3 months and all 8 participants are thriving, with no exits from the programme as yet.  This is a step on their journey into independence and they are challenged to think about different life choices and to get ready for the world of work.