Residents urged to report crime to police
|Published
Residents have been urged to report crime to police instead of complaining on social media.
Durban - FIGHTING crime is an issue in the country and addressing the problem requires collaboration between law enforcement and their respective communities.
However, Umbilo community policing forum (CPF) chairperson Heather Roos was concerned that the community preferred to complain about incidents online, as opposed to reporting it to the police.
“As the Umbilo CPF chairperson, I make it a top priority to follow up on incidents that I see online with the Umbilo SAPS. Sometimes, when I ask for an update on incidents, I am surprised that the matter has not been reported to police. I’ve been noticing it happen in other parts of the city too and it’s a problem because the police can’t attend to a crime they don’t know happened.”
Frustrated community members have cited poor service from the police, either in attending to crime or when reporting crime at stations.
“I’m not saying it’s all aces but there are structures you can use to address poor service, such as through taking the matter to a higher authority at the police station,” said Roos.
Sydenham CPF communications officer Satish Dhupelia said he has experienced similar incidents and encouraged residents to report criminal activity.
“If crime is not reported, it doesn’t tell the true story of what is happening on the ground. So we encourage communities to report crime to help the police get a true reflection of what’s going on and so the proper interventions are put in place to deal with crime.”
Phoenix CPF chairperson Umesh Singh said communities play a crucial role in fighting crime.
“The police cannot fight crime alone; communities have to report incidents and inform police. In cases where reports are continually not attended to, the CPF is there to speak on people’s behalf or, if need be, take it up to a higher authority.”
Police spokesperson Captain Nqobile Gwala appealed to the community to ensure they reported all forms of crime to the police. “Even the victims of minor crime must open cases at the nearest police stations so that the investigation will be conducted. Failure to report crimes will lead to under reporting and leads to police not deploying police officers correctly. This will also affect how resources are allocated to the police station.”
Daily News