High performance vehicles to assist in fight against crime

The 200 high performance vehicles and 75 motorbikes handed over to law enforcement agencies on Friday will go a long way in achieving the Gauteng government’s target of reducing crime by 50% in priority police stations.

The vehicles are fitted with the latest technology, including trackers and registration number plate recognition.

This will allow police officers to perform their job better, said Gauteng Premier David Makhura at the handing over in Soweto.

The ceremony was also attended by the special school safety committee that the Premier appointed on Thursday to deal with sexual violence in schools. The committee is made up of the MEC for Education, Panyaza Lesufi, MEC for Community Safety, Sizakele Nkosi-Malobane and MEC for Social Development Nandi Mayathula-Khoza.

The initiative to increase police resources was developed as part of the provincial government’s Deliverology Programme.

Premier Makhura said this was not just in preparation for the festive season but to ensure that trio crimes, including gender-based violence and drug related crimes, were prioritised and reduced.

“We have identified 12 priority clusters, 40 police stations in the province that contribute 50% of crime statistics nationally. We will focus on these clusters and stations to ensure they cut crime by at least 50%,” the Premier said.

They would put a special focus on crimes against women and children.

“We don’t want rapists in our communities. I want to urge the law enforcement agencies in our province to make life difficult for criminals,” he said.

He commended the reintroduction of the Family Violence, Child Protection and Sexual Offences Unit (FCS) as the specialised police unit. He said increasing resource allocation to fight crimes against women and children was yielding positive results.

“The FCS is one of the major success stories because of the high rate of arrests and successful prosecution of perpetrators. Perpetrators must be caught and brought to book.”

Provincial Police Commissioner Major General Deliwe De Lange said there is no excuse for the police now with the additional resources. She said the police service is deploying adequately trained officers to handle gender-based violence.