BLUE Security has joined forces with residents in Westville North and Cowies Hill to provide a dedicated armed response vehicle to help strengthen the community’s fight against crime.
The security company’s managing director, Henk Van Bemmelen, said the decision was made in response to the community’s need to improve preventative policing, following a spate of serious and violent crimes during the past year. The vehicle will service a fixed geographic footprint covering Westville North, Chiltern Hills and Cowies Hill Valley.
The vehicle will be officially launched and start patrolling the area on Wednesday, 1 March.
“The deployment of a dedicated vehicle will strengthen proactive policing, reduce armed response times in an emergency and provide professional back up to the volunteer patrollers and their CCTV control centre,” Van Bemmelen said.
Lloyd Wing is a member of the Westville North Special Rates Area (SRA) committee driving a project to create an SRA in the Westville North and Cowies Hill area to improve security and rejuvenate the suburb.
“We have been hit hard by crime. There have been four murders since January last year which is an unfortunate statistic although crime is everywhere,” Wing said.
“Having a dedicated vehicle with a radio patrolling the suburbs will really help us.”
The Chiltern Hills West Neighbourhood Watch’s efforts to fight crime include regular night patrols by a team of 100 residents and a control centre where street cameras are monitored to improve security on the streets.
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