Since the festive period is an ideal time for criminals to try to up their game and commit various crimes, the Cape Town Central City Improvement District (CCID) together with its law enforcement partners, treat the entire festive season – which runs from December until March – as a time to double efforts around public safety. This is to ensure both local and visiting holidaymakers stay safe in the CBD. Here’s what the CCID’s Safety and Security department has undertaken with its partners and noted so far.
According to Muneeb Hendricks, Manager of CCID Safety and Security, the three most prominent types of crime that the CCID and its partners target are theft out of vehicles, pickpocketing and ATM fraud. And so far, the public safety plans are progressing smoothly and have been highly effective in combating crime.
“I’m glad to say all our festive season plans have worked well as we haven’t seen spikes in the prominent crimes we target. In fact, since the start of the festive season and implementation of our safety plans, we’ve seen a drastic reduction. Shortly after rolling out our ATM Fraud Project together with the Western Cape Government’s Department of Community Safety (DoCS), to create more of a security presence with around ATMs, we saw a significant decrease in the number of related incidents being reported. Plus, with our own Public Safety Officer (PSO) teams responding swiftly to all calls received from the additional security officers deployed, the majority of attempts made to commit ATM fraud weren’t successful.”
The ATM Fraud Project sponsored by DOCS and managed by the CCID sees a team of 15 additional independent security officers being deployed to cover seven hot-spot tourist-frequented ATMS. At the same time, the CCID is partnering with Cape Town Tourism to educate tourists about the latest scams being used by con artists.
Muneeb further explains: “With regard to common and aggravated robberies and theft out vehicles, we have also noted a huge reduction as well. This can be attributed to changing our own CCID PSOs’ working hours, so they coincide with major events to ensure maximum coverage. Other factors that have contributed to our success include our senior security managers assisting with duties after hours, deploying our undercover officers in hotspot areas as well as utilising all our resources to increase visibility, such as with our CCID-funded Law Enforcement Officers (LEOs) and the additional traffic wardens working alongside our own PSOs.”
Overall, since mid-December, the CCID and its partners’ other safety plans have included the following measures to help keep the public safe:
- From mid-week through to the weekend, when the night-time economy is most active, the CCID has its usual 80 CCID PSOs on duty per shift, as well as an additional 10 officers per shift. Each shift also has five lock-up vans patrolling along with two rapid-response vehicles. Plus, there is a six-member management team on rotation throughout the festive season to manage the CCID squads.
- As it does throughout the year, the CCID also deploys an eight-person impact team providing a visible presence in hotspot areas as required. This enables the CCID to deploy a target unit directly to an area in need without in any way depleting its usual PSO on-the-ground visibility.
- Together with the Western Cape Government DOCS, the CCID has a project running in The Company’s Garden aimed at creating a visible presence in this iconic space during the daytime by deploying a team of 15 ambassadors. The ambassadors are trained by the Western Cape Government’s Chrysalis Academy which is funded by DOCS and managed by the CCID.
- The CCID is deploying six CCID-funded LEOs during the day time and 10 LEOs during the night time, dedicated to CCID response units.
- While the organisation runs its “Stash it, don’t flash it” public awareness campaign all year round, during the festive season it is amplified to educate the public on the streets on how not to become victims of crime.
- The CCID is also running a Public Safety Project together with City Law Enforcement covering St Georges Mall and Greenmarket Square, where 13 members are deployed solely to these public spaces.
According to Muneeb, the CCID’s rationale behind these partnerships is that: “On our own, each of us can only offer limited coverage but by pooling our resources, we can achieve much more together.
“It has been a pleasure to work hand-in-hand with our partners and we continue to soldier on. We have seen additional SAPS members deployed to the streets and additional LEOs for major events. For instance, Long Street was closed by the City’s traffic department for New Year’s Eve celebrations.”
The majority of these ramped-up festive season safety plans will run until the end of March. But even throughout the rest of the year, the CCID’s Safety & Security department and its partners will continue to work tirelessly to make sure the Central City and surrounds is a safe place for all to enjoy.
Images by Ed Suter