ALTHOUGH there was a poor turnout to the Umbilo SAPS fun day held at Port Natal High School sportsfield on Saturday, the new Umbilo SAPS station commander, Col John Romer, was upbeat and in high spirits as he revealed his plans to combat crime in area.
The 2016/2017 crime statistics ranked Umbilo Police Station in the top 20 for incidents of carjacking nationally. Addressing the community in attendance, Romer said police had already started carrying out daily roadblocks in the area.
“I give you the assurance that there will be more police visibility, with daily roadblocks to reduce the crime. I would also plead with the community to bear with us because we deem these checkpoints important,” he said, adding that the partnership between the commuity and the police was poor and they needed to work together to change that.
The Colonel’s address touched on establishing a local Community Police Forum (CPF). “We will be hosting CPF elections on November 28 and have to make sure it doesn’t fail, we keep it going and vibrant. Never has a station commander needed the community like we do. I am saying this because crime in Umbilo is bad, we need the community to help us in our fight against crime. You can be rest assured that we will be having more of these engagements between the police and community,” said Col Romer.
A CPF is a forum established in terms of section 19(1) of the SAPS Act, Act 68 of 1995, as a group of people from within the community, businesses, security agencies and other role players who meet with local police representatives to discuss safety concerns in their community on a monthly basis. A CPF also aims at ensuring police accountability, transparency and effectiveness in the community. It is therefore imperative that every CPF remain true to the purpose of its establishment and ensure all crime and safety related concerns from the community be the focus of each and every CPF meeting.
The event also included informative interactions by SAPS departments such as the drug and dog squads, flying squad and police band. Col Ximba, also of Umbilo SAPS urged the community to provide police with feedback on how they experienced the handling of cases and general treatment by police.
