Law enforcement in hotspot areas reason for murder decrease

Western Cape Police Oversight and Community Safety MEC, Anroux Marais, has attributed the recent reduction in murder cases in the province to the permanent deployment of the Law Enforcement Advancement Plan (LEAP) in hotspot crime areas. This is in accordance with their double-up strategy.

The latest quarterly crime statistics, released on Tuesday, showed an 8.7% decrease in murder in the Western Cape.

Marais says the decrease in murder in almost all the areas where LEAP officers are permanently deployed generally outpaced even the general decline in the rest of the Western Cape.

“It means that through adapting LEAP, in keeping with what data and evidence are telling us, we are making inroads in combating crime. Criminals are known to change their tactics and behaviour, and so we too must stay one step ahead of them.”

The reductions in murder cases were recorded in areas that are known criminal hotspot areas in the province and where LEAP officers are permanently deployed:

• Delft (-15%),
• Gugulethu (-1.8%),
• Khayelitsha (-6.1%),
• Mitchell’s Plain (-19%) and
• Nyanga (9,9%).

However, an increase of 60,9% in murders was recorded in Phillipi East.

According to the minister, the Western Cape Government and its crime-fighting partners will continuously look at ways to adapt its strategy to keep up with the ever-changing ways in which crimes are being committed.

“I want to thank every LEAP member for their contribution to this improvement in our efforts to fight crime in the Western Cape.”

Marais added that the Western Cape Government will continue to deploy additional law enforcement resources to target the areas most affected by violent crime.

“As the Western Cape Government, we take cold comfort in these decreases. One life lost to violent crime is one too many. While we welcome the reduction in murders, we are realistic that our job is far from done”

She reiterated that the efforts of all safety partners to work in a more coordinated fashion had been put in place with the signing of the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the Western Cape Government, the South African Police Service (SAPS), and the City of Cape Town.