15 Jan 2017

Gerald Estate court president, Kgosi Paul Motshwane has applauded young people in his cluster area for being active in crime prevention activities.

Kgosi Motshwane who is also the chairperson of the Crime Prevention Executive Committee of police District No 1 said a lot of youth have shown an upper hand in formulating crime prevention strategies which bring positive results.

He said the youth always go an extra mile noting that they are not only tasked with patrolling the streets but they also engage in public education campaigns on crime prevention measures.

“We highly appreciate the efforts played by these youth because they have sacrificed their time and at the same time they do this on voluntary basis and whenever they are needed they never fail to show up,” he said.

Kgosi Motshwane indicated that the youth through their cluster committees act as watchdogs and report other community problems to the police.

Thus he said this move has significantly reduced issues of common nuisance and assault as well as house break-ins.

Kgosi Motshwane further said they are aware of challenges in relation to crime prevention related matters.

“Though crime prevention activities are an effective way of community policing, we are still faced with several challenges. Some people do not actively engage in these activities with the fear that their safety would be at stake,” he said.

He also said lack of cooperation also affects them, saying though some of them know of crime related issues in their neighbourhood they fail to tip off the police.

In spite of all these, Kgosi Motshwane said efforts to address some of the challenges are in place saying on issues of safety of volunteers while patrolling, they often go out with some of the police officers and at times they are transported. BOPA