Why do we need community policing?
Community policing brings the police and the community together to solve problems of crime. If we work together, we can make our community a safer place to play, work and live in.
Community policing should be more proactive than reactive.
Community policing teaches us not to sit and wait for crimes to happen before we do something. Instead, we find out why people commit crime in the first place, then we work together to solve the problems that cause crime.
Community members are more valuable than money.
The police cannot make an area safe if the community does not help them.
The community often has important information about crime, so we can ask them to give this information to the police, or to Community Police Forum (CPF) members, to help make their communities a safer place to live and work in.
What is a CPF?
CPFs bring the police and the community together to solve problems of crime
A CPF consists of organisations and institutions such as schools, mosques, churches, youth groups, ratepayers’ associations, civic organisations, welfare organisations and businesses in the area of a police station.
The purpose of a CPF is to establish and maintain a safe and secure environment for its citizens. The elected CPF exco members are non-paid volunteers. A CPF is a legislated structure that establishes a partnership between the community and the police.
What is a Community Police sub-forum?
A sub-forum is a smaller forum that covers a geographical subdivision of a large police station area.
There are three sub-forums in Hout Bay namely: Imizamo Yethu sub-forum; Valley sub-forum; and Hangberg sub-forum.
The aims and objectives of the CPF are to:
Establish and maintain a partnership and to promote communication and co-operation between SAPS and the community;
Improve the rendering of police services to the community;
Promote transparency and accountability of the service to the community;
Promote joint problem-identification and solving with SAPS and the community;
Assist with the initiation and co-ordination of social crime prevention programmes and projects in conjunction with SAPS; and
Mobilise the community to join community safety structures such as the victim support and neighbourhood watches, etc, and ensure effective functioning of such bodies.
Exco members
The Hout Bay CPF exco members are chairperson Toby Adams; deputy chairperson Vincent Sodladla; secretary Linda Lloyd; treasurer Anja de Villiers; project coordinator Tammy Matthysen; and additional members Lieutenant Colonel Khuthala Nebhisi, the station commander and Warrant Officer Tanya Lesch. The public relations officer position is vacant.
How is the CPF funded?
The Provincial Government’s Department of Community Safety (DOCS) has identified 19 key performance indicators (KPIs) against which the implementation of the CPF activities is measured.
At the end of each month, the CPF may qualify for a payment of R2 500 or part thereof. Monthly compliance with KPIs will determine the proportion of the monthly incentive that will be paid out to the CPF.
It is left to the discretion of the CPF to decide how monthly payment should be administered and spent. In principle, it is understood that the money will be spent on community safety initiatives.
Contacts
Call CPF chairperson Toby Adams on 083 25 17404 or email him on cpfhoutbay.chairperson@gmail.com
Find Hout Bay Community Policing Forum on Facebook.
Current projects
The community is continually looking for additional volunteers to assist with Victim Support at the SAPS station. Call Warrant Officer Lesch if you are willing to assist.
SAPS invites members of the community that are energetic, intelligent, physically and mentally fit and that are dedicated with the desire to serving their country on a voluntary basis as reservists, to assist SAPS in the fight against crime.
Call Captain Kriel on 021 417 7414 or The Recruitment Centre on 021 467 8492 for details.
How to lodge a complaint related to poor service delivery with SAPS
Complaints with Hout Bay SAPS should follow this procedure:
In the Community Service Centre, the main desk as you enter the police station, there is a notice board with the contact details of the station commander, Lieutenant Colonel Nebhisi; the Vispol Commander, Captain Jacques Lourens and the CPF chairperson, Toby Adams.
The community can contact any of the three people to lodge their complaint.
A meeting is set up and a statement regarding the complaint obtained.
Then an officer at the station will be appointed to investigate the complaint.
It is important to mention that the complainant must be willing to give a statement regarding the complaint.
Tammy Matthysen is project co-ordinator for the Hout Bay CPF Community Police Forum.
