Members of the Sector 3 CPF in Honeydew were joined by Captain Karen Jacobs from the Honeydew Police and ward councillor Jacques Hoon on April 3 for a monthly CPF meeting.
Chairperson for Sector 3 Honeydew CPF, Anthony Beer acknowledged the biggest thorn in their side had been JMPD, particularly not receiving assistance from the department.
Captain Jacobs gave a crime report for March and said housebreakings were a steady problem in the area.
“If you have a panic button, ensure that there is a back-up system because they don’t often work when there is load-shedding. The security companies will not get the alert when you press the panic button during an outage, so you need to get a back-up system in place.”
She said this was especially imperative as we are heading into winter. Housebreakings often occur in the early mornings when residents leave for work or in the evenings before heading home.
“Theft out of motor vehicles also increased at shopping centres,” Captain Jacobs noted. “Please do not leave your laptops or bags on the seat. Ensure that your vehicle is locked at all times. We are going into the Easter holiday so crime is going to increase. Always be vigilant when drawing money from an ATM. When you are at home, make sure the gate is closed. I know sometimes gates don’t automatically close during load-shedding so you need to check and ensure that you have closed it properly. Unfortunately you have to think like a criminal.”
Residents raised concerns about police visibility and not receiving assistance from JMPD regarding noise complaints from nearby establishments such as shebeens or clubs. Another hot topic was the illegal connections on Pierre Road in Honeydew. One resident said the street was mapped with illegal connections that would often be re-connected shortly after being taken down by authorities.
To this Captain Jacobs said arrests were being made on a regular basis; however, in most cases the damage had been done. “We will have officers on duty all of Easter and there will be a lot of operations in the area. There will be visibility.”
Beer mentioned that there had been an increase in hijackings by blue light vehicles in the area.
“Sometimes detectives drive in unmarked vehicles that have blue lights but it can be difficult to know. If you are stopped by one and you are unsure, find somewhere safe to stop, like a garage. The Easter weekend is upon us so you really need to be vigilant. Winter is also around the corner which means cable theft goes up. JMPD only has 13 officers covering 18 wards, and four vehicles covering the entire region.”
Hoon recognised the clean-up operations that had been happening in the ward but acknowledged that the most pressing issue was the power outages affecting several areas.
“There is a lack of capacity. Too many residents on the grid lead to tripping. There are projects underway by City Power but they are under-capacitated. They are working on upgrading our network.”
