NORKEM Park SAPS urges residents to become involved in the fight against crime.
Spokesman, Capt Lesibana Molokomme, said they were doing the best they could to prevent and fight crime in the area.
“The Norkem Park policing area is divided into sectors, which makes the police more visible in each area. This also makes it easier to police the area.
“A car is assigned to each area on a 24-hour basis. The police in the sector are responsible for their area,” explained Molokomme.
Molokomme said the police patrolled all areas in their sectors in an effort to reduce the crime rate. He also pointed out that the police could not foresee crime.
“The community must bear in mind that we have plans for each incident, we have members who are on patrol and we have roadblocks in all our problematic areas.”
He further encouraged community members to attend meetings hosted by sector managers and community policing forums.
“Together we will make a difference in our area. Stop buying suspected stolen goods, because criminals think there is still a market and will continue breaking into houses to steal.”
This comes after residents of Birchleigh have been complaining that crime in their area, specifically close to the station, has been on the rise. Residents say crime levels become worse during winter, where the days are shorter and it becomes darker quickly.
One resident, who asked to remain anonymous, said most of the crime took place in and around Birchleigh Railway Station, in the mornings between 4.30am and 6am and in the evening between 6pm and 8pm.
“The crime levels in the neighbourhood have gone up drastically. We have have had robberies in our complex in the past few months where cars were stolen and a woman was robbed close to the gate of her complex in the evening,” the resident said.
She explained that every time the community called for the police, they only arrived after the thugs had fled.
“We have asked the police to patrol the areas where we know these crimes take place and as daily commuters of these roads we are aware of the times the attacks take place and have complained and reported the crime on numerous occasions but nothing has been done.”
