Community Safety
- What criteria are followed to determine the allocation of LEAP (Law Enforcement Advancement Programme) officers to various crime hotspots in the City of Cape Town and (b) why is there no uniformity in the number of officers deployed at various hotspots?
(a) The initial criteria utilised were to, as far as possible, ensure an even distribution of Law Enforcement Advancement Plan (LEAP) personnel across the five areas. This has changed recently, and the operational strategy and deployment of the various teams are based on available evidence and data led. This approach is also used as part of monitoring and evaluation to determine the effectiveness of LEAP and inform a cycle of continuous improvement. This is the main reason why more officers were deployed to Khayelitsha, Philippi and Delft at certain times due to an increase in multiple killings and a flare up in gang violence. LEAP officers were also deployed to COVID-19 hotspot areas during the peak of the pandemic, mostly during the months of June, July and August 2020; as well as to assist with the flare up of land invasions in the Province. The ideal is to deploy LEAP personnel according to available evidence and according to available data.
(b) The deployment is based on available evidence and data led, taking into consideration the COVID-19 Regulations, crime patterns or ad hoc requests due to an unexpected flare up in gang violence or a change in murder patterns in communities.
