On a mission to half the murder rate in crime hotspots, Western Cape Premier Alan Winde, and Western Cape Minister of Police Oversight and Community Safety, Reagen Allen, welcomed the launch of the Law Enforcement Advancement Plan’s (Leap) Reaction Unit in Steenberg on Friday 13 May.
The pair joined unit members on a ride-along from Steenberg Police Station to Cafda in Retreat where officers conducted a stop and go search.
Winde says part the provincial safety plan has always been to deploy officers through a partnership with the City and provincial government.
“We have now also established this Reaction Unit to help the police when we have these flare-ups like it’s happening in Lavender Hill, where you get the gang-flare-ups and the shootings and of course our mission is, how do we half the murder rate?
“We have to focus on halving the murder rate and so we are here to engage on that deployment, is it working, what difference it is making and is it stabilising the area?”
Winde added that the statistics of the unit have been positive. “The statistics of this reaction unit is amazing, we’ve had 22 000 searches, 7 000 vehicles searched, we’ve t firearms being taken off the streets every day, so really it is about getting in there and doing policing work and it’s in partnership with police who we know are under-resourced.
“What this unit does is help bolster those resources, so that we can actually make it safer for the community.”
Winde says 1 000 officers have been permanently deployed.
“We have a smaller reaction unit that goes from area to area, here we are splitting it between Grassy Park and Lavender Hill.”
The unit, which is made up of Leap officers, has been redeployed to Steenberg and Ottery following an increase in gang-related violence and shootings in Lavender Hill and Grassy Park, respectively.
“This is the flare-up of hotspots but the murder hotspots are where the permanent deployment is happening in Langa, Nyanga, Khayelitsha and Kraaifontein.
“The idea is to deploy permanently into the hotspots until you get major change in the percentage of murders.”
Allen said the unit was established in February. It focuses on reducing violent crimes and murders.
“It was previously deployed in Manenberg and Elsies River amid an increase in gang-related violence, shootings, and murders. Going forward, the reaction unit will be expanded to provide greater support to communities impacted by flare-ups in shooting incidents.
Allen added that police and Leap officers are working together to gather crime intelligence when it comes to criminal activity and mass shootings.
“We have over a number of years highlighted the lack of criminal intelligence on the ground. So, we are working with police in that regard especially if you consider mass shootings that is happening and how we are cracking the arrests of those particular ones.
“These particular areas we do know that in time, intelligence is being built up around gang activity, which gangs are in conflict, which territories they are actually controlling. This intelligence is being gathered by police, together with Leap officers.”
Meanwhile Shaun Martin, a resident of Cafda Village in Retreat, said police are simply not around when they need to be.
“Metro police, traffic police and the minister (are) here but there are shootings happening in this place every day. They come here and give the people R500 fines for not wearing a seat belt in an urban area, this is not right.
“They can be here for exposure, no other reason. They shoot here a lot. Last week Tuesday, they shot here and three hours later police showed up. When we need them the most they are not here.”
To date, the Leap Reaction Unit has searched 22 021 people and 632 houses; conducted 140 vehicle checkpoints and searched 2753 vehicles; made 41 follow up visits to ensure unlicensed liquor outlets were closed; conducted 681 inspections of on-consumption liquor premises and 99 inspections of off-consumption liquor; recovered eight firearms and made 260 arrests.
