Police Oversight and Community Safety
In the light of claims made by him and the Premier in a media statement on 18 August 2023 in which they claimed that LEAP officers have had a positive impact on crime reduction in specific areas where they had been deployed:
- Whether he could provide evidence or data (besides the SAPS crime statistics) that support this claim and explain the overall effectiveness of LEAP in curbing crime;
- (a) what concrete steps is the government taking to address gang-related violence and reduce the violence and (b) why is the Safety Plan not making significant progress in curbing murders?
THE MINISTER OF POLICE OVERSIGHT AND COMMUNITY SAFETY TO REPLY:
9. (1) The Law Enforcement Advancement Plan (LEAP) officers serve as force multipliers to the South African Police Service (SAPS), the City Metro Police, law enforcement and traffic officials by working with them collaboratively, as well as independently. Through this, they add increased visibility, as well as a response capacity. They are also essential to building community trust in law enforcement and policing. The Department of Police Oversight and Community Safety (POCS) monitors the activities of the LEAP. Over the course of 2022/23, LEAP officers reported that:
- They conducted 538 215 searches. The searches were conducted on 470 510 persons, 17 296 houses and 45 755 vehicles.
- 9 162 arrests were made. 68% of arrests were drugs and liquor related – targeting some of the generators of crime, while 17% were for possession of firearms and ammunition.
- 163 firearms were confiscated during the year. This number has increased each quarter as more LEAP officers were appointed. LEAP started with less than 500 officers in 2020, deployed in 5 areas. In 2021, LEAP increased to 1200 officers deployed in 9 areas. In 2022, LEAP was deployed in 13 areas with over 1200 officers.
- LEAP officers work hand-in-hand with other agencies. 492 460 operations were conducted by LEAP during the year, 95.5% of these were autonomous operations, 3.5% were integrated operations (with other City forces), and 0.96% were joint operations with SAPS.
- LEAP also conducted 7 253 liquor related actions during the year.
In the 1st quarter (April to June of 2023), LEAP continued with its operations recording the following successes:
- 119 879 searches were conducted:
- 2 373 liquor related operations took place
- 1 833 hotspot patrols took place
- 4 762 operations were conducted.
- 524 visits to domestic violence complainants
- 2 317 arrests were made – 137 for firearms and ammunition.
- A total of 388 firearms have been confiscated since inception up to 30 June 2023. 45 firearms and 28 imitation firearms were recovered in Q1. 313 items of unlawful ammunition were confiscated.
(2) (a) The province has a adopted a whole of government approach to reducing violence in the Western Cape, focusing on three safety priorities: effective law enforcement; strengthening social protective factors; and improving safety infrastructure in public spaces. The Department of Police Oversight and Community Safety (POCS) is coordinating the implementation of an anti-gang strategy, which seeks to bring together the combined resources of all provincial departments, the Justice Crime Prevention and Security (JCPS) cluster in the Western Cape, and the City of Cape Town in 6 high gang violence areas, namely: Manenberg, Hanover Park, Bishop Lavis, Mitchells Plain, Delft and Elsies River. The strategy also focuses on reducing firearm harms.
(b) The causal factors of murder are complex and intertwined and include factors such as socio-economic conditions, spatial disparity, gang organisation and violence, access to firearms, proliferation of drugs and easy access to unregulated alcohol. Policing and law enforcement play a role in curbing and responding to violence. In the face of reducing numbers of SAPS members in the province, the Western Cape government is supporting the deployment of the LEAP officers in the priority areas where murder and violence are most pronounced. We have also made a call for gang-related matters to be attended to through the Prevention of Organised Crime Act 121 of 1998 (POCA).
There has been some positive signs of improvement through the stabilisation of murder in the Western Cape in 2022/23. In the period January to March 2023 (quarter 4 of 2022/23), murder reduced by 14.1% in the Western Cape and 5.7% in the LEAP areas, whereas it increased by 3.4% nationally. Quarter 1 (April to June 2023) saw the reduction of murder by 5.5% compared with a 3% reduction nationally. In LEAP areas it reduced by 5.7%.
It is evident that the Western Cape Safety Plan (WCSP) 2019, which aligns to the National Integrated Crime and Violence Prevention Strategy (ICVPS), is making great strides in the Western Cape 2020.
