Anger was on the verge of boiling over when Peacevale residents, last night, held a community meeting to discuss the crime wave which has stunned the area in recent weeks.
Dundee SAPS Station Commissioner, Colonel Nyide, attended the meeting with some of his senior officers but they too had their hands full in ensuring everyone could have their say.
The meeting was held adjacent to the Peacevale swimming pool. Vernon Naicker told the meeting that promises from the police of ‘working together with the community are all good and well but the main issue was that the poor response time from the police when members of the public phone in with an emergency’.
“Sometimes the phone is not even answered. When the police do come it is sometimes over an hour later by which time the baddies have long fled the scene,” he said.
Others complained that the radio room controller’s usual excuse is ‘that we have no vans available but when there is domestic dispute up to three vans suddenly arrive at a house’.
Still others criticised police for ‘using their vehicles to shop and take kids to school’.
Trying to pacify the anger, Col Nyide admitted that there have been mistakes but wanted the community to work with police to combat crime. He called for volunteers to come forward to serve on a Community Police Forum ‘sub forum’. Names were taken down while others wanted to form a neighbourhood watch and do their own patrols.
The meeting comes in the wake of dog poisonings and armed robberies in the area. Another break-in on McKenzie Street also made the mood at the meeting even gloomier.