A police radio crackles. A metro police officer warns his colleague in another vehicle of suspicious activity in one of the dusty streets of crime-riddled Delft, on the outskirts of Cape Town.
It’s only 9.30am on a Friday and in a two-and-a-half-hour operation, metro police searched 61 people and stopped 33 vehicles.
For these officers the day is only getting started and they have a rough weekend ahead on these tough streets. Delft has some of the highest rates of murder and rape in the country.
Of the 61 people they searched, the officers arrested two for drug possession. They issued 10 fines after stopping 33 vehicles.
Residents cautiously watch the metro police make the arrests and are unsure whether the operation will even make a dent in the high crime that plagues the area.
Marilyn Cedras who is a community activist in Blikkiesdorp said the police were not doing enough to support the local crime fighters.
“They are not doing what they are supposed to do. We as the neighbourhood watch, we see the criminals in front of us but it is difficult to intervene because we are not armed to protect the community and school children when they go to school.”
Cedras believes that metro police and other law enforcement agencies should work “with local leaders and neighbourhood watches who risk their lives“ to fight crime in the area.
“I used to see metro police and the law enforcement but not here in Blikkiesdorp. We are facing [criminals who] steal cables at night and we cannot sleep, we have to be careful all the time,” Cedras said.
She said when they patrol the area at night they use whistles to attract the attention of other residents to warn them of suspicious activities.
Resident Edwin Braaf watched as metro police arrested a man for possession of mandrax. He shrugged his shoulders while acknowledging that drugs were a major concern.
“These [people] take drugs and always fight here,” he said.
He complained that the police were rarely in the area.
Blikkiesdorp resident Hania Albshary believed the patrols would yield more positive results if they were done during the night more often.
But metro police say they have limited resources, they merely assist the SAPS to do their jobs.
“Our officers are visible but they do not stay [in an area] the whole time because we do not have the numbers. But we have big visibility in the area of Delft,” said metro police spokesperson Mzwakhe Nqavashe.
He said the City does consult with local neighbourhood watches in areas where they patrol.
Nqavashe said they have built a relationship with Delft residents and work closely with crime activists who inform them about crime in the area.
“We have invested a lot in Delft in the past three to four years. We saturated Delft and there were teams that worked 24 hours and now we have a lot of informants in Delft.
“It is a problematic area because it has substance abuse involvement [with] drugs tik and mandrax,” he said.
In the city centre, roughly 30km from Delft, the deployment of 100 Leap (Law Enforcement Advancement Plan) officers was recently announced.
Nqavashe said the officers were deployed in the Cape Town CBD on Wednesday.
“[Patrolling on foot] is necessary in the CBD because of increased crime such as muggings and stabbings,” he said.