Berea’s elite squad gets the job done
A Task Team has been initiated by Berea police to target criminals of property crime and car theft which has escalated in the area.
AN elite new Field Unit, put together by Berea police to tackle an escalation of general crime in the area, has been making inroads in the fight against crime carrying out a number of arrests since its formation.
According to Berea SAPS Communications Officer, Lieutenant PN Naidoo, the Field Unit or Task Team was initiated on the 29 December to tackle an escalation in property crime, theft of motor vehicles, house break ins and theft out of motor vehicles.
The Task Team, made up of two detectives, Constable MM Mabaso and Constable ET Gabayi with five members from VISPOL, Constable Byron Erasmus, Constable Nigel Naicker, Sergeant Carl Dennis, Sergeant Ricky Pillay and headed by Captain Kevin Stevens has been responsible for many successful arrests.
“The team’s hard work led to the arrest of Jerome Chetty who was wanted for house breaking in Durban, Hillcrest and Isipingo. Stuart Sharnick was also arrested two weeks ago for theft under false pretences involving R1,3 million in cash, and Ashley King who had a warrant of arrest against him was finally arrested for assault and intimidation. They have made arrests in other important cases including two rapes and the current DUT scam,” he said.
The team has also been able to assist other stations were crimes have overlapped with the Berea precinct area. Captain Stevens said the team worked well because everybody had their strengths and contributed with their expertise including Warrant Officer Nicky Naidoo who had been a strong part of the administrative side of the team.
Station Commander at Berea, Colonel Nathaniel Kweyama, was happy with the excellent results the team had reaped in their three weeks on the new beat. “We realised that we had a shortfall with the follow up on incidents and tracking down of criminals. Deterring with VISPOL was not enough as these criminals would come back, so the team focuses on tracking down criminals, they work with detectives and VISPOL jointly, united we can stand against crime.”
