SEVERAL arrests were made and dangerous weapons confiscated as part of a crime intervention programme run by the Swartkops Community Policing Forum (CPF) recently.
Chairperson of the CPF, Nolan Mathura, said that they took to the streets of Swartkops and Bluewater Bay, and other areas, from 09:00 to the early hours of the following morning in an effort to rid the streets of criminal elements.
Assisted by the police, private security companies, including Atlas Security and Fidelity ADT, the metro police and other law enforcement authorities, they were able to not only confiscate various weapons, but found substantial amounts of tik and cocaine as well.
“With this crime sweep, we concentrated on dangerous weapons, such as guns and knives, and also focused on drugs. Various arrests were made in respect of the drugs so it was a huge success for us,” said Mathura.
He explained that they had done the crime sweep after the CPF observed the increase of crime in their policing precinct.
“The station commander, Lt Col. John Perils, decided that we would run a massive crime prevention drive in Bluewater Bay, Swartkops, St George’s Strand and Wells Estate. It was a huge success for us, since the community is what we are trying to protect.
“Most residents saw the law enforcement vehicles and that there was some activity going on as we drove through.
“We even had a helicopter from Fidelity ADT helping with the operations and that, coupled with law enforcement officers travelling through the street, caused the groups to just fire up with messages with residents asking what was going on.
“It means that the effort was seen and I think that we made a huge impact with this operation that we had. It just proves that operations of this nature show the results that we get in fighting crime,” he added.
“If you look at the stats from the weekend that we ran this operation, you would have very low stats, almost zero in certain areas on your normal petty crime and house burglaries. Even that goes away when you show the force in the area.”
Mathura said that there would be more of these operations to follow.
“We are probably looking at the next couple of weeks for the next one.”
