FEBRUARY 2008
With the increasing frequency of power blackouts across the country, fears are that we may be more vulnerable than usual during power outages. This is not necessarily so, if we pay attention to a few basic rules:
- Check your alarm backup battery - these can usually last for several hours if in good condition.
- Be extra vigilant when opening and closing gates when leaving or arriving home.
- Ask your private security company to accompany you into your home, especially at night.
- Pay attention to media notices about blackouts and plan your movements in and out of your property accordingly.
- Look out for suspicious cars or people in the street and if in doubt ask SAPS to check.
- Arrange with your neighbours to watch each other's properties, especially during blackouts.
- Watch out for criminals posing as Eskom repairmen. Be careful who you let into your property.
Parkview SAPS invites residents of the precinct to join them in ‘community patrols' as another way of preventing crime and keeping criminals out of the precinct.
Already, many people have joined the scheme - Craigpark residents have been particularly active.
It entails using private cars for short periods to patrol parts of the area. The car owner is joined by one or more uniformed officers who decide where to go. The result is that the resident gets to know where the hot spots are, what SAPS look out for in anticipating and preventing crime, and the joint presence of police ad c0mmuity members can unsettle any plans that criminals may have.
Says station commissioner Senior Superintendent Moodley: "Imagine how they must feel when a civilian's car pulls up and out gets a police officer to ask questions. It gives the impression that the police are watching from the most unexpected places."
Resident associations and individual residents are urged to contact Sen. Supt. Moodley on 011 486 5000 to arrange their patrols.
Four hits in three hours of Parkview policing
Richard and Thomas Dancer join Parkview SAPS on their monthly Flexi-Friday.
20h15... We are called to a crime scene in Westcliff. Gunmen have just followed a car into the driveway, robbed the owners and their guests of their cell-phones, money and jewellery and left taking a Mercedes. Station commissioner Moodley with members of his robbery reaction unit are there. The residents are guests are shell-shocked, some badly traumatised. Thankfully, no-one is injured. Questions are asked professionally and matter-of-factly. A police radio reports that Netstar is tracking the stolen vehicle. It is on the move on the M1 South. An air of hope wafts through the bewilderment.
20h30... Robbery reaction car speeds off to the area where the vehicle has been tracked. Car is still on the run.
20h40... We resume normal patrol. Tonight, being a special operation, there are 12 police vehicles active in the precinct. Normally there are four. In the car with us are Parkview station commissioner Sen Supt Moodley with Insp Pretorius and Const Muluvhu of the robbery reaction unit. We head off to Craighall Park and stop at the garage on William Nichol. The register in the forecourt shop shows that Parkview SAPS visit the garage at random times during every shift. The place has had three armed robberies in the past two years.
21h00... We are in Minerva Road - an eerily quiet street at the northern end of the precinct. All is quiet as we pass the sites of two recent ‘brothel' raids. A lonely dog sits sentry at one of the gateways. Houses here border the Braamfontein Spruit, a well-known refuge and escape route for criminals. "If anyone was down there, you wouldn't see them in the thick undergrowth," says Pretorius as we survey the forebodingly dark river course from the safety of the bridge.
21h20... We join another vehicle on Jan Smuts. They have stopped a silver Merc, similar to one on the ‘lookout' list which has been involved in several house robberies in the past fortnight. This is not the same vehicle - proved by a quick check of the registration and fingerprints of the occupants relayed from the police's portable fingerprint computer, which links directly to the police bank on Pretoria. The station has only one such machine for the entire precinct.
21h40... An old Toyota turns a corner in Craighall Park. There is one man at the wheel. SAPS training kicks in as we pull the car over. The driver gets out with his hand up even though no guns are brandished. "The Nigerians always do that," explains Pretorius. "They're either aggressive or they put their hands up." It is suspected that this man has just completed a drug ‘drop'. He has a lot of cash in his pocket. The car is searched and the road behind is examined in case he has thrown something out. No further action. We move on.
22h00... A car pulls up alongside, asking the way to the Zoo Lake. "Follow me" says our driver.
22h05... Approaching the junction of Jan Smuts and Bolton. Muluvhu sees it first. A smash and grab is taking place as we cross the intersection. Right before our eyes we see a man break the window of the car at the Bolton traffic lights. He quickly reaches inside. There is a group of them. No time to turn around. Pretorius' foot hits the floor and we race around the block. No sign of them. "Up the lane" shouts Muluvhu. We roar past a man who is pointing us ahead to three men running. We corner them at their get-away car in the Woolworths car park. Three officers jump out and three suspects are pinned to the ground and handcuffed. Two suspects give in quietly. They know the game is up. The other pleads his innocence, even though his arm is scratched and bleeding, presumably from the car window he has just broken. We find a handbag in the car. The purse is intact, but no money. "They take out the money first, even when they are running," says Moodley.
22h15... Two more Parkview SAPS vehicles arrive. The suspects are loaded into one. The get-away car's keys are found thrown to one side in the car park. A search of the shrubbery produces no more evidence.
22h30... We look for identification in the bag and find a number. Moodley phones and reaches the complainant's mother. Her daughter has already told her of about the incident. Moodley assures her that we have the bag and all cards, ID and license appear to be there. The mother is gratefully reassured.
22h32... We wonder what happened to the people who wanted to know the way to the Zoo Lake!
22h35... News comes in that the stolen Mercedes is now in Sandton, heading for Alex.
Pretorius, Muluvhu and another officer speed away with lights and siren blazing.
22h45... One officer drives the smash-and-grab get-away car and we follow to Rosebank police station (The incident happened on the precinct border, but on the Rosebank side.)
22h55... A car veers awkwardly and turns the corner in front of us. We chase and pull him over. Out he gets, with hands up. Another drug trafficker, himself drugged up to the eyeballs and hardly able to stand, let alone drive. Off with him and his car to Rosebank station, just a block away.
23h10... Smash and grab suspects are locked up in Rosebank cells. The get-away car has been impounded. Our drug(ged) man is locked up to ‘sober up'. The smash and grab complainant phones. Moodley tells her that she can pick up her bag from Rosebank. She is relieved and impressed.
23h25... We head back into the Parkview precinct. The radio tells us that the stolen car has been recovered in Alex. Our officers were involved in a shootout with the gang. There is a bullet hole in the car door. Suspects have escaped, but there is a store of fingerprints. Moodley heads for Westcliff to report the news........
Another evening in the life of our Parkview police. A thoroughly professional performance. Four arrests, a vehicle recovered and a handbag reunited with its anxious owner.
All in the course of duty, and hats off to Parkview SAPS. Would that we could have 12 vehicles and this complement of officers on our streets every night.
See for yourself how our police, even with resources stretched so thin, perform selflessly and professionally for us, day and night. Contact Senior Superintendent Moodley on (011) 485 5000 or Richard Dancer of the CPF on 082 901 8927.
Many people in the precinct are now showing their support for Parkview police by displaying a "Support Parkview Police" sticker on their car windows. This is also being seen as a deterrent to criminals.
Your R50 donation helps the police where the system is deficient with:
- Customer service training;
- Police reservist support;
- The victim support unit;
- Special operations equipment.
When you become a Parkview police supporter, your sticker:
- Singles you out as being proactive against crime;
- Identifies you as a resident or a regular visitor to our precinct (e.g. a shopkeeper)
- Displays your pride in being part of one of the best police precincts in the land.
By being a supporter, as evidenced by your sticker, you;
- Boost police confidence;
- Help build a community united against crime;
- Become a partner with the police in their fight against crime;
- Tell criminals they are unwelcome here;
- Make appositive contribution to promoting excellence in Parkview police
If you don't yet have your sticker, please take your R50 donation to the police station and ask for your sticker. This is a CPF initiative in support of our police.
A gang of five hijackers who terrorised Johannesburg's Northern suburbs has been sentenced to 22 years each behind bars. They were convicted for 20 counts of hijacking over a period of a year.
The sentencing comes nearly three years after Parkview resident Richard Dancer was accosted by the gang in his driveway. He was taken at gun point to a southern Johannesburg site where the police happened to be waiting for the gang and a massive shootout ensued. Dancer publicly praised the police for their action at the time, which saw all five gang members arrested within four weeks of the incident.
Commenting on the sentencing, Dancer said: "It is reassuring for us and the police that the legal process, however slow, has finally produced a positive outcome."
The security of our family, home and belongings is only as solid as our weakest link. We may have sophisticated alarms and armed responses, but if the criminals attack when one of our employees is on the pavement, there is very little that can be done to foil ill intent (as proof a nasty incident at a well protected home in Hurlingham recently).
We are largely a residential, family community living in quiet, green suburbs. Many amongst us have domestic help at home; yet so few attended the first domestic watch meeting this year. Notices are distributed to households and published in the local papers.
Our domestic workers know far more of the goings-on than employers often realise. Their information is of huge value to ourselves and the police. It is essential that we encourage our domestic employees to attend Domestic Watch in a bid to heighten awareness of criminals' modus operandi and to generate more thorough dissemination of information.
In a country "at war" with crime, it is truly surprising that the community doesn't pull together in a more proactive and effective way. Please, for the safety of all involved, allow and encourage your employees to attend Domestic Watch, they will be better able to react to, watch and inform on any unusual activities.
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For further info contact Richard Dancer on 082 901 8927 or Jenny Wrench on 082 903 7787
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