A new community policing forum (CPF) is yet to be elected after seven executive members of the Simon’s Town CPF stepped down.
Eileen Heywood, who resigned as chair, told the People’s Post that lack of resources and staff at Simon’s Town Police Station were some of the reasons behind the resignations.
“The primary concern was that, for several years, there was little to no feedback from the management at both provincial and national level within the police,to deal with the short staffing at the Simon’s Town Police Station.
“So, as an example, if there is a house break in or robbery in progress they simply cannot respond due to actual members not being on duty to be able to respond. So, we are not asking for anything extraordinary.
“The CPF appreciates other areas require additional resources and we are not requesting more, we are merely requesting to have the minimum staff compliment at station level as legislated.
“Without this, we continue to have evenings where Simon’s Town police cannot respond to any complaints due to not enough members on duty currently.”
Heywood added that a new CPF executive committee has yet to be elected by the residents within the precinct.
“Those new members would then need to continue trying to get items to improve, create and maintain projects, and have the monthly meetings, with various law enforcement, the police, navy, metro, traffic and ward councillors. So, they would need to continue what is required as per the mandate of CPFs.”
In a public statement, Heywood said they were sad to resign as they were unable to fulfill their mandate.
“It is with a heavy and sad heart that we, the Community Policing Forum Executive Committee for the Simon’s Town police service precinct, have tendered our resignations from the CPF as we are unable to fulfill our mandates.
“This is due to the police’s provincial and national management ignoring our repeated requests for additional staffing at the station, to merely achieve the bare minimum required for a station to function correctly.
“As an example, over the last 24 hours, there have been two separate incidents where the police were required to, but could not attend to due to no officers being able to respond.
“This because of the staffing limitations being experienced by the public where the police have only two members on duty in the evening and the national requirement is a minimum of two officers in a vehicle, which would leave the Community Service Centre (the station) empty and unattended, which is not allowed.”
She concluded that a formal meeting will be held to officially resign, and new volunteers could step up, and hopefully take on the challenges that they have been fighting for unsuccessfully.
“The frustration being experienced by both CPF and the public, especially during the night where the policing services are required for serious incidents, are as a direct result of insufficient staffing to meet the minimal requirements for a station like Simons Town police. It is becoming more prevalent daily.
“Given the current increase in crime, especially due to load shedding, we need these resources even more than ever before.
“The current status quo has unfortunately become untenable and we cannot as CPF in good conscience continue to accept this, hence our resignations.”
