Observatory, is an attractive, leafy
suburb under Devil’s Peak, favoured by artists, yuppies and the
retired. Built mainly in the 1900s Cape Town’s answer to Greenwich
Village, as it is sometimes called, is enjoying a property and
restaurant boom. Less happily, it has also experienced a boom in
crime.
The suburb has never had a police station. The nearest large station
is in Mowbray. However Observatory’s policing is not based there but,
inexplicably, at Woodstock, three kilometres away. But, Woodstock
Police Station is responsible for one of the largest precincts in Cape
Town (Salt River, University Estates, Woodstock and Observatory) and is
so understaffed that often only one police van is in operation to
service 150 000 people. As a result Observatory’s reputation as an easy
target spread quickly among thieves and robbers. In February 1997 alone
reported crime included 30 residential burglaries, 12 business
burglaries, eight street robberies, 54 thefts from vehicles, nine cars
stolen, nine assaults and one rape.
Last year a group of residents responded to the deteriorating
situation by setting up Obswatch, a community-policing organisation
that employs South African Police Service (SAPS) reservists to patrol
the suburbs’ streets and lanes. Following the establishing meeting on
June 24, there were six well-attended public meetings. Obswatch was
registered as a company, a board of directors elected and I was
appointed as chief executive officer. With initial donations of just
under R25 000 from the community and an unsecured bank loan, we bought
furniture, uniforms and bicycles. Norwich Holdings gave us a computer,
a local printer produces our newsletter free and another local firm has
covered our photocopying costs — several thousand sheets a month.
But most of Obswatch’s funds are raised by subscriptions from
residents. The organisation acquired its membership through the
door-to-door efforts of the volunteer subscriptions director and some
20 “street harvesters”. We call subscriptions “social money” and do not
ask for the family jewels. We charge R50 per month per household and
between R100 and R250 per month per business for the service provided,
though our officers respond to crime whether the victim is a subscriber
or not. The only state assistance so far has been from the Provincial
Secretariat for Safety and Security — R16 000 for eight two-way radios,
that are, quite simply, essential. With these funds and equipment,
Obswatch employs 17 officers working four shifts, 24 hours a day every
day, so that there are always three or four officers are on duty.
Since officers began work on September 1 there has been a substantial
reduction in crime. In February this year, there were four reported
house break-ins, five business burglaries, two street robberies, and no
assaults or rapes. These figures have been broadly echoed in other
months (see table below). However, there were still 32 thefts out of
cars and eight vehicles stolen. Observatory has few garages and we
estimate that we would need at least 25 officers (we planned originally
for 40) to reduce car theft. Residents also complain that they don’t
see our officers enough, and this is true. We are applying to the
provincial government for bridging funds so that we can employ more
officers while the subscriber base is built up.
Changes in Reported Crime in Observatory
CRIME |
FEB 1997 |
FEB 1998 |
Burglary (res) |
30 |
4 |
Burglary (bus) |
12 |
5 |
Theft |
14 |
6 |
Theft of m/vehicle |
9 |
8 |
Theft out of
m/vehicle |
54 |
32 |
Robbery |
8 |
2 |
Assault |
9 |
0 |
Rape |
1 |
1 |
Murder/ attempted
murder |
2 |
1 |
Drugs |
5 |
1 |
Total |
144 |
60 |
Obswatch is essentially a patrolling
organisation. Response time is fast because the suburb can be covered
on a bike in minutes. Officers can radio police armed-response units to
deal with incidents that require arms and, for an extra R20 a month,
will investigate activated house alarms by arrangement with the
security company concerned. (We learnt early on to leave the technical
business of monitoring alarms to specialists.) Our officers have become
community workers as well as crime fighters, performing innumerable
small and helpful tasks for residents. The office is a centre for the
reporting of missing persons, lost dogs and property.
All policing raises questions about the relations of the individual
and the state: the separation of powers, central versus local control,
protection from vigilantes as well criminals, and human rights. At
Obswatch we are aware that civilians cannot simply be handed control
over the activities of trained police reservists. Our mission statement
emphasises that it operates under the South African Constitution that
now includes a Bill of Rights. From the outset the commander of
Woodstock police station or his deputy attended and advised Obswatch
meetings, while a police reservist commander and the local ward
councillor are ex-officio members of the Obswatch board. We have
appointed a retired senior policeman as commanding officer (his
references were carefully checked with the SAPS) and he liaises with
the Woodstock command every week. Officers on the beat act at their own
discretion, but, if necessary, any decision they take can be referred
to the CO. Obswatch’s code of conduct is very strict and the discipline
imposed by the CO is one of the board’s chief concerns. In the past
nine months the officers have made about 130 arrests — many of them
after radio or telephone alerts from Woodstock police. There have been
no allegations of unlawful arrest, malpractice or use of excessive
force, though two officers were cautioned early on for hitting an
unruly street person.
Although the officers are trained and registered SAPS constables, for
legal reasons we employ them in their personal capacities. Thus they do
not wear police uniforms or insignia when working for us, but armbands
which announce that they are Obswatch officers. Understandably they do
so with some reluctance, because they are proud of being trained and
experienced policemen and would prefer to wear their police uniforms.
In addition any arrests they make when on duty for Obswatch are
citizen’s arrests and they do not take statements.
There is another civilian organisation employing reservists,
Rent-a-Cop, that operates in central Cape Town and Seapoint and is led
by city councillor Chris Joubert. Their officers do wear police
uniforms, and work out of central police stations, though they are
financed by business and, to a lesser extent, residents. This has led
to protracted debate about the constitutionality of private citizens
controlling police personnel. Councillor Joubert and the local SAPS
commissioner have been working on a formal solution to this legal
question and an announcement is expected soon.
Whether a community force wears police uniforms or not, the separation
of powers remains vital. A little story might help illustrate the
point. Just after we started Obswatch I was walking from the office and
saw an old street man trying to beat his wife. An Obswatch officer was
nearby and I found myself shouting: “Arrest him!” As I did so, I felt
that this was precisely what I should not do as CEO of Obswatch. An
arrest should be a policing decision. I am grateful that this minor
incident happened early; it was what Muslims call a “brush of the
angel’s wing”, a blessed warning.
Obswatch is now approaching solvency and we hope a permanent role in
the community. About 1000 households subscribe at present bringing in
revenue of approximately R50 000 per month (not all sub-scribers are
regular payers), while expenditure is about R43 000 per month. Our
overdraft has been regularly reduced by R3000 per month donated by Spar
Western Cape and we are helped by people who either volunteer their
time or work for very little pay. If 70 per cent of residents
sub–scribed, revenue would be in the vicinity of R115 000 per month and
we could provide a Rolls Royce policing service. It would be money well
spent. The monthly cost of crimes against prop-erty in Observatory
(calculated by making conservative estimates of R4000 per domestic
bur-glary, R8000 per business burglary, R40 000 per car etc and
multiplying them by SAPS figures for reported crime) has dropped from
about R1.3 million per month in early 1997 to R300 000 at
present.
Insurance companies are saving fortunes, but do not respond well to
suggestions that they might help in funding the administration of
Obswatch. And although Obswatch enforces Cape Town city by-laws our
applications for a grant have been turned down. Informally we are told
that the city cannot justify assistance to a suburb that already has
some policing when there are many suburbs with virtually none. But
people who manage to do something are just as important as those who do
not: our voluntary board of directors has onerous management duties
which require meeting every week for at least three hours.
If there were Obswatches round the country the long-term result would
be less strain on the official purse. It must be reasonable to fund
such initiatives once they have a constitution, are registered as a
Section 21 company, have established a police force and had a
significant effect on crime. State funding should help such
organisations through the very difficult early stages to
self-sufficiency.
It would also be easier to set-up community policing organisations in
the future if our police were not so centrally controlled. Most western
democracies have local police forces answerable to locally elected
representatives, but in South Africa only Durban still has its own
metropolitan force; it dates from the 1890s. The Police Service
Amendment bill now before Parliament will allow other towns to
resuscitate metropolitan forces, though their financing remains to be
decided. Some unimaginative officials have promptly said that there is
not the money for the job. The truth is that the money is not present
for the job because it has not been raised for the job. Policing is not
so expensive per house in a medium-size suburb — provided that the
money is not wasted on excessive administration and that it does not
get lost in the national pool.
In the absence of adequate state-financed policing, an organisation
such as ours fills a gap that might otherwise tempt people to take the
law into their own hands. According to the provincial police spokesman,
Senior Superintendent John Sterrenberg, police effectiveness is
actually reduced in areas where vigilante groups attempt to arrest or
shoot criminals because such activities increase the police workload
(Cape Times, April 7 1998). However, he said, bodies such as Obswatch
that “seek co-operation and not confrontation and in doing so
contribute towards the safety of their own community are an example to
all”.