Trevor Moodley, Sanddrift
Residents’ associations and neighbourhood watches are the real eyes and ears of their communities. But they are, for want of a better description, “partners in prevention”, not “policing”.
While pro-active community leaders do use the CPF platform to make known their challenges to the police, the actual policing remains the responsibility of the state, in the form of SAPS and law enforcement. Please do not confuse this arrangement.
Training volunteers to take over that role would create a legal and constitutional shambles.
If truth be told, check out the culture of rot and laziness that is currently embedded among active policing forces.
Decent residents and communities mustn’t let themselves be used. They must ensure their partnership with the CPF is in the field of prevention and in the pursuit of true law and order, and they must let the real police do the policing.