The community will work closely with the SAPS, the neighbourhood watch and the community police forum. Picture: Bongani Shilubane
After waiting since 2016, the Community in Blue programme has finally been launched and will see residents working alongside the police to help fight crime.
The Elsies River Neighbourhood Watch (NHW) and Community Police Forum (CPF) will also be part of the programme.
“We have been waiting for the roll-out of the Community in Blue in the Western Cape since 2016. The project aims to get members of the community involved in combating crime. We are quite excited to be in a position to oversee the recruitment and implementation of this initiative. We have many neighbourhood watches in our precinct and many of them are doing an excellent job in keeping their immediate surroundings a little bit safer. The major difference between the neighbourhood watch and the Community in Blue is that the Community in Blue volunteers will work much closer and under the supervision of the SAPS and will be deployed more effectively to known hot spots,” said the public relations officer of the Elsies River CPF, Imraan Mukadum.
They are calling on all existing NHWs to join the Community in Blue. Application is not reserved to only NHW members as all residents between the ages of 18 and 65 are welcome to apply.
The only criteria for aspirant members is that they should not have any criminal record and should be reasonably fit.
CPF secretary and Elsies River Neighbourhood Watch chairperson Roderick Ourson said the Community in Blue was newly launched in the Western Cape and their station conducted interviews a month ago, with the first 30 members aimed to start as soon as the uniform is available.
“The aim for Community in Blue is to assist the police with visibility in order to combat crime within our community, so they will be working directly under the sector commanders and will focus on the hot spots. Regular updates will be given to the neighbourhood watch, because they have oversight on the day-to-day running of the Community in Blue. We cannot wait for the newly elected members to start with their patrols in order for us to have more visibility in our hot spot areas in Elsies River.”
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