- In honour of National Police Day, observed on Saturday 27 January, officers attached to the Athlone Police Station were encouraged through letters written by residents containing spiritual messages.
- With introductions such as “dear officer” and “dear friend”, the letters were a means of showing appreciation and encouragement through phrases, poems and quoting scripture.
- A handover of the letters was hosted by station commander Col Junaid Alcock and Sgt Zita Norman, who heads the Spiritual Crime Prevention at the station.
In honour of National Police Day, observed on Saturday 27 January, officers attached to the Athlone Police Station were encouraged through letters written by residents containing spiritual messages.
With introductions such as “dear officer” and “dear friend”, the letters were a means of showing appreciation and encouragement through phrases, poems and quoting scripture.
A handover of the letters was hosted by station commander Col Junaid Alcock and Sgt Zita Norman, who heads the Spiritual Crime Prevention at the station.
“We handed hand-written letters from community members for each member of the police station for National Police Day,” she said. “Each letter was handmade and written with a special unique spiritual message for each officer to hold dear.”
A total of 165 letters were delivered to the station and distributed to officers.
“The campaign is run by the Police Spiritual Crime Prevention and all stations have implemented this,” said Norman.
The campaign was run in conjunction with religious leaders in the precinct.
In one letter the author writes: “Your job cannot be easy, and you must need to deal with all sorts of people and problems on a daily basis”, followed by a quote from Maya Angelou: “Try to be a rainbow in someone’s cloud.”
Another, who outlines the sad state of youth offenders and its impact on officers, writes: “Do not despair. The holy writings assure us that our Creator will solve the many problems that make out lives seem hopeless”, followed by a quote from Revelations 21:4.
“The authors are a community group that has made this their heartbeat to keep police in prayer and to give their services to assist which ever way that they can for the spiritual, social upliftment of the community in partnership with police,” says Norman.
In a 2022 statement, then National Commissioner of the South African Police Service, General Khehla Sithole adopted the Spiritual Crime Prevention (SCP) initiative as one of the key deliverables of the South African Police Service in line with the National Crime Prevention Strategy, where four pillars have been outlined especially pillar number 4, public values and education.
