The chairman of the Summer Greens Neighbourhood Watch has appealed to the community to support their crime-fighting efforts.
Reagan Croeser was re-elected as chairman at a poorly attended annual general meeting at the Summer Greens community hall on Tuesday August 29. Many of the other executive committee members kept their positions. Gary Jacobs is the vice chairman.
“We need the help of the community,” Mr Crouser pleaded, saying the watch could make a real difference if more residents joined.
Joint ventures with other watches had helped to raise awareness and increase their visibility with so-called “power patrols” involving watch members from Sanddrift, Phoenix, Tygerhof and Milnerton Ridge.
The Summer Greens watch had also built a relationship with “Block Watch” a group of youngsters in Summer Greens who patrolled in their own capacity and called on the watch for back-up.
“With the patrolling in the middle of the night and early hours of the morning, it really helps us out because this means we cover more ground and for longer hours,” said Mr Croeser.
He said the watch experienced the same problems residents faced when calling SAPS or law enforcement for help.
“We often hear there aren’t enough vans for the area or they will take two hours to arrive when we call.”
He urged residents to report crimes because if they didn’t, SAPS would assume the neighbourhood was safe.
Some of the watch’s operations had started to bare fruit.
Mr Croeser said drug users had been pushed away from the parks in the past year so that children had a safer place to
play.
