The City of Cape Town’s Metro Police Department has made 100 arrests in five months, with eight for cable theft alone. Many of these arrests come after the crimes were first noted on the city’s CCTV network.
‘The fight against cable theft is ongoing and the impact is far reaching. Criminals do not see the families who are left without electricity, they have no sympathy for the students who cannot study after cable theft disables computers and they clearly have scant regard for the lives and livelihoods that could be lost because of exposed wires or the impact on public transport or otherwise affected infrastructure,’ said the City of Cape Town’s Mayoral Committee Member for Safety and Security, Alderman JP Smith.
The Metro Police Strategic Surveillance Unit oversees nearly 850 CCTV cameras across the metropole, excluding cameras monitoring the freeways and transport routes and interchanges.
From January to May this year SSU detected 72 cable theft incidents in the CCTV footprint compared to the previous year where 92 incidents were detected during the same time frame.
Most of the incidents occurred in May when 23 were detected which is an exponential increase compared to the previous year when three incidents were detected.
‘So far this year eight people have been arrested for cable theft, compared to a total of 13 for the entire 2020, and this is partly due to an increase in the number of camera installations. The cameras play an important role in the early detection of criminal behaviour and enable us to respond faster when criminal activity is detected. Officers are often able to catch the criminals red handed because of an alert by the CCTV control room, preventing further damage to infrastructure, ‘ said Alderman Smith.
While cable theft is rife across the city, the hotspots include Belhar, Manenberg, Khayelitsha and Woodstock.
The most incidents occur on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday with the highest frequency of incidents is occurring during 18:00 to 21:00 and 0:00 to 03:00 during the night.
‘Cable thieves clearly operate at a time when they think no one is watching. Knowing big brother is watching may deter some thieves and extends our enforcement footprint,’ added Alderman Smith.
The recorded footage can be shared with SAPS for the purposes of their investigations and gives an unbiased look at incidents where there may not be any other information or witness accounts.
Strict measures are in place to ensure the chain of custody is preserved in the handing over of footage.
Residents can report vandalism of City infrastructure to the City’s Call Centre on 0860 103 089 or call 107 contact number (021 480 7700). Members of the public can report cable theft or provide tip-offs to the Metals Theft Unit control room on 0800 222 771 or 021 400 2828.
Source: City Of Cape Town