Preventing crime before it happens is a key objective of the Durbanville Community Police Forum’s latest safety plan.
The plan for the 2018/2019 financial year was outlined to law enforcement agencies, including the police and neighbourhood watches, at a Durbanville wine farm, last week.
The plan calls for the promotion of professional policing and partnerships and the creation of safe spaces in the community.
It notes that the forum will continue to visit police stations regularly and says frequent community meetings encourage good police work.
The forum wants to strengthen crime-prevention in Durbanville and make sure the City allocates crime-fighting resources fairly to communities. Residents will be encouraged to join neighbourhood watches, victim-support units or become police reservists.
According to the plan, the DCPF will work on improving lighting, especially in Fisantekraal; holding awareness campaigns on drinking and driving and domestic violence; and increasing visibility to create safe spaces within Durbanville.
At the meeting, Western Cape Economic Development Partnership CEO Andrew Boraine stressed the importance of partnerships in making the plan work.
“Most times people are good at drawing up a plan but not that good at implementing it. We tend to spend 90% of the time focused on what we are going to do but not enough on how and who is going to do it,” he said.
DCPF vice-chairman Glenn Schooling said the 2016 White Paper on Safety and Security emphasised a need for government and non-government parties to work together to tackle safety. “In the past we had issues in Durbanville relating to partnerships but we started taking hands with the private security sector and had since seen a decrease in crime,” he said.