29 July – DPVwatch attended a sector meeting at Cape Town Central with Captain Carstens, our ward councillor Francine Higham, and other neighbourhood watches in attendance.
The crime statistics showed that there was a spike in crime incidents over Fridays and the weekend when clubs and restaurants are more populated, but that incidents were otherwise equally spread out across all sectors. Ludlow Road was shown to be 1 of the top 3 roads for crime incidents in Sector 2 (the DPV area), but there were otherwise no significant crime trends in our neighbourhood. SAPS also reported a number of successful arrests in Mill Street and Jutland Avenue for theft out of motor vehicles, and the possession of dangerous weapons and/or stolen goods.
85% of crimes were shown to be vehicle-related, with the rest being house-related. Our residential areas have comparatively lower statistics than other areas (with only 80 total incidents reported across Sectors 2, 3 and 5 combined in the last month) which is why SAPS do not spend as much of their resources patrolling the DPV area. We are aware, however, that many ‘petty’ crimes, such as windscreen wipers being taken or thefts in which the items have been returned to the owner, go unreported and our area is thus not recognised as the hotspot it is. At the recent CPF meeting on 1 August, Brigadier Van Niekerk acknowledged this fact, that even SAPS’s own members often dissuade complainants from making reports as it is seen as a waste of time. DPVwatch is here to assist and encourage the reporting of these crimes. The more crimes that are reported, whether the suspects are caught or not, the better recorded our crime statistics are and the more patrol vehicles we have in our area.
1 August – For the first time in months, SAPS’s monthly crime statistics showed that there had been a significant decrease in Theft Out Of Motor Vehicle incidents. In fact, DPV only featured on their crime radar due to the house break-in incidents in Pypies Square.
A local security company warned that they have noticed a number of vehicle break-ins specifically for the Suzuki Swift and Renault Kwid (which reportedly has its car boot opened very easily).
Brigadier Van Niekerk extended her thanks to the CBD for supporting the SAPS Mandela Day drive for coffee jars. Thank you to Charly’s Bakery who helped to collect the donations of glass jars from our community. SAPS will continue to collect donations of glass coffee jars for their next “Jar of Hope” drive!
