{"id":46619,"date":"2024-03-26T10:15:13","date_gmt":"2024-03-26T08:15:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/novanews.co.za\/peoplespost\/hotspots-targeted-20240325\/"},"modified":"2025-03-19T22:19:00","modified_gmt":"2025-03-19T20:19:00","slug":"hotspots-targeted-20240325","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/novanews.co.za\/peoplespost\/hotspots-targeted-20240325\/","title":{"rendered":"Law enforcement agencies target gang hotspots in Lavender Hill and Steenberg"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>With a surge in gang violence in Lavender Hill and Steenberg, the City\u2019s law enforcement agencies held a crime prevention operation targeting crime hotspots on Tuesday 19 March. <\/strong><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>According to the City, Hillview had become particularly volatile over drug turf and retaliation.<\/strong><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>In Lavender Hill, where the City installed gunshot detection cameras in March last year, around 563 shots were detected in the first year of the project.<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p>With a surge in gang violence in Lavender Hill and Steenberg, the City\u2019s law enforcement agencies held a crime prevention operation targeting crime hotspots on Tuesday 19 March.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>According to the City, Hillview had become particularly volatile over drug turf and retaliation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In a statement, Mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis, who joined law enforcement operations, said residents should not be living in daily fear.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cCommunities are under siege by criminals, as we see here in Lavender Hill and Steenberg, where ongoing drug turf wars are being waged between rival gangs. We can never accept this situation as normal while residents live in daily fear of violent crime,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>More than 120 enforcement officers targeted contraventions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Drugs, firearms, liquor and traffic offence action resulted in close to 20 arrests for various offences.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Metro Police, law enforcement and traffic officers focused on identified hotspots for vehicle and foot patrols, roadblocks, and search warrants at suspected drug dens.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cTo make Cape Town safer, we are investing in more City policing resources to help police fight crime. These resource investments enabled City officers to make almost 450 illegal firearm confiscations and double drug arrests to 8 000 in the last two financial years,\u201d said Hill-Lewis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Last year, in a pilot project, the City funded bullet proof vests for the entire Hillview Guardians Neighbourhood Watch due to gang conflict in the area.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A patroller from the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.news24.com\/news24\/community-newspaper\/peoples-post\/watch-now-bullet-proof-pilot-project-rolled-out-to-protect-patrollers-in-volatile-area-20230704\">Hillview Guardians Neighbourhood Watch,<\/a> who asked to remain anonymous due to safety concerns, tells<em>&nbsp;People\u2019s Post<\/em>&nbsp;that he simply did not feel safe even while donning his bullet proof vest during patrols.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cI am on the road every morning at 05:00,\u201d he explains. \u201cThis morning I wore my bullet proof vest because shootings are taking place on a daily basis.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cPeople are dying every day and the main problem is that innocent people are injured.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Explaining the gang dynamics, he says the two rival gangs Junky Funkies and a new gang, the Funky Killers, are at each other\u2019s throats.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThere are retaliation shootings,\u201d he said. \u201cUnfortunately, the community also protects the shooters.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Aided by various safety tech, the City is steadily rolling out city-wide operations with the assistance of drones, gunshot detection cameras, CCTV, dash and bodycams.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In Lavender Hill, where the City installed gunshot detection cameras in March last year, around 563 shots were detected in the first year of the project.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThis intelligence has aided City crime prevention efforts, with confiscations of 368 ammunition rounds and 14 firearms over the last year locally. Twenty-one cases of murder and attempted murder were reported linked to gunshot detections, with 10 arrests linked to shot detections and firearm recoveries,\u201d said Hill-Lewis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Meanwhile, 21 cases of murder and attempted murder were reportedly linked to gunshot detections, with 10 arrests linked to shot detections and firearm recoveries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Steenberg Community Policing Forum (CPF) chair Gavin Walburgh says while gang fighting had subsided in Steenberg, a young man was shot in the area on Saturday 16 March.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cWe had a bit of shootings but most of it took place in the Muizenberg policing precinct, in Hillview,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cIn Lavender Hill, we haven\u2019t had any violent incident since December because we managed to have a cease-fire agreement between the gangs.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Walburgh confirmed there has been a surge in gang shootings in Lavender Hill and Steenberg as it normally occurs during the school holidays.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cWe hope it won\u2019t cause any issues during the Easter weekend.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Meanwhile, Mayco member for safety and security JP Smith said the City\u2019s law enforcement agencies are constantly evolving to adapt to criminal threats.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cWe are increasingly becoming a data-driven policing service and our three enforcement agencies \u2013 law enforcement, traffic, and metro \u2013 are constantly evolving to adapt to the ever-increasing and changing crime threats.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>With a surge in gang violence in Lavender Hill and Steenberg, the City\u2019s law enforcement agencies held a crime prevention operation targeting crime hotspots on Tuesday 19 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This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v27.8 (Yoast SEO v27.8) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Law enforcement agencies target gang hotspots in Lavender Hill and Steenberg | People&#039;s Post<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/novanews.co.za\/peoplespost\/hotspots-targeted-20240325\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Law enforcement agencies target gang hotspots in Lavender Hill and Steenberg\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"With a surge in gang violence in Lavender Hill and Steenberg, the City\u2019s law enforcement agencies held a crime prevention operation targeting crime hotspots on Tuesday 19 March.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" 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Geordin Hill-Lewis and Mayco member for safety and security JP Smith joined an integrated crime prevention operation in Steenberg and Lavender Hill on Tuesday 18 March.PHOTO: Supplied"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/novanews.co.za\/peoplespost\/hotspots-targeted-20240325\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/novanews.co.za\/peoplespost\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"News","item":"https:\/\/novanews.co.za\/peoplespost\/news\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"Law enforcement agencies target gang hotspots in Lavender Hill and Steenberg"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/novanews.co.za\/peoplespost\/#website","url":"https:\/\/novanews.co.za\/peoplespost\/","name":"People's Post","description":"To Inform, Engage and Empower Local 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