Cape Town - Western Cape Premier Alan Winde has announced plans to deploy a further 50 Law Enforcement Advancement Plan (LEAP) officers to crime hot spots.
Speaking during a visit to Hanover Park, Winde said the first 250 officers will begin their training in April to be deployed in July, and the other 250 officers will begin training in July for deployment in October.
He said deployed officers will form part of the area-based teams (ABT) which will ultimately be rolled out to 16 crime hot spots in the province, supporting SAPS and other law-enforcement agencies in crime prevention.
Hanover Park will have the first ABT.
During his visit, Winde was accompanied by Western Cape MEC for Community Safety Albert Fritz and Mayco member for Safety and Security JP Smith.
"Since becoming premier, safety has been a key concern of mine. In my State of the Province Address last year, I committed to making safety a priority for this government. Covid-19 may have impacted some of our programmes, but I remain committed to ensuring that residents of our province feel safer,” Winde said.
LEAP officers were deployed to Hanover Park last year after a spate of shootings and violence in the area.
"In addition to these deployments, our safety plan also committed to violence-prevention strategies. We are working closely with the City of Cape Town and different policing agencies to bring this component into our area-based teams. I am pleased that the violence prevention advisory board, made up of experts in this field, sat for the first time today as well,” Winde said.
Further statements regarding this will be made when he presents this year’s State of the Province Address on February 17.
Since LEAP officers were deployed in the area, they have made 153 arrests and searched more than 9,000 people, almost 200 houses and 350 vehicles.
They have also conducted 103 autonomous operations, 30 integrated operations and 37 joint operations with police.
“I am incredibly proud of the work that our LEAP officers, together with our SAPS officers, are doing in Hanover Park. In October 2020, we redeployed our LEAP officers to several of the most crime-afflicted communities in our province and Hanover Park has seen the benefit of this.
“This is demonstrated in the fact that Hanover Park has gone nearly a month without a shooting incident.
“There is also a sense of increased safety in the community and gratitude among residents for the joint efforts of SAPS and LEAP,” Fritz said.
He said the ABT methodology emphasises that data-led evidence guides interventions.
“It will be an institutional mechanism that both co-ordinates and monitors all government interventions in the particular area and operationalises service delivery interventions,” said Fritz.
Smith said officers deployed to the area truly care about the communities and take pride in their work as they ensure that the communities they serve become safe environments.
African News Agency (ANA)