“I want to warn criminals that your time is gone. Our people will no longer live in fear. We are going to hunt you down.”
Nelson Mandela Bay mayor Mongameli Bobani vowed to step up metro police visibility as he opened two new metro police satellite offices in Motherwell and Humewood on Wednesday.
The officers, who will be selected from the 127-member metro police force, will increase patrols and traffic law enforcement in the areas as the city prepares for the festive season.
This brings the number of metro police satellite offices to four, with two already established in Bethelsdorp and KwaNobuhle.
“Our communities will work together with the metro police, the SAPS and traffic officers,” Bobani said.
“It can’t be that our communities live in fear because of you.
“We’re not only here to fight crime, but this precinct is here so that our people can get better services.
“We’re opening this in the heart of Motherwell because we know that at some point Motherwell was number one in terms of crime.
“New Brighton, KwaMagxaki, Uitenhage, we are coming.”
The metro police officers will alternate between the Motherwell office – situated at the Thusong Centre – and the Humewood precinct, and will conduct joint operations with members of the SA Police Service, security services and traffic officers.
Metro police chief Yolanda Faro said being in Motherwell meant a quicker response time to incidents instead of officers having to drive from KwaNobuhle and arriving after a suspect had fled.
“We can’t have one office out in Greenbushes and not know what is happening in the community.
“There’s no red [no-go] area for me to police.
“This is for effective policing and using your resources effectively and efficiently, and making sure that metro police are in the community and not only visible but part of the community,” Faro said.
Safety and security executive director advocate Keith Meyer said the opening of the satellite station in Motherwell was the start of a new beginning in the fight against crime.
He said the metro police precinct commander would join the Motherwell station commander in the crime-combating forum to discuss strategies, share intelligence and plan how to be more effective.
The metro police were not there to take the fight against crime from the police, but rather SA Police Service members would take the lead and metro police would play a secondary role in fighting crime.
“I’d like to believe the opening of the contact point will play a role in establishing and fostering a greater relationship with the community because we cannot fight crime alone.”
Safety and security political head Litho Suka said the metro police was enhancing its responsibility and stretching its of bringing precincts closer to the people.
“The key function of centres is for traffic operations because there are a lot of vehicles that need to be checked and we need by-law enforcement.
“Our townships are filthy because of illegal dumping and we’re going to have to monitor them,” he said.
“Our metro police need to check on that because that’s part of our revenue collection.”
Suka said one of the metro police’s mandates was crime prevention because if officers saw something happening, it should not be ignored.
“These centres are not for the community to come and report cases but for deployment of our personnel to various places so they enhance and enrich the SAPS because we play a supplementary role.”
He said the metro police would patrol the hotspot areas in Motherwell, which would make residents feel safer.