Why Capetonians can take heart from the latest crime stats

One of our pledges to Capetonians at the start of this term of office was to make Cape Town safer. We cannot call this a city of hope as long as our communities suffer at the hands of criminals, and particularly the gangs and drug dealers who terrorise many of our neighbourhoods.

You probably also know that we have long called for our own municipal officers to be granted powers of investigation so that we can build cases that will see criminals successfully prosecuted and locked up. This devolution of policing powers is a top priority for us. But until that happens – and I am confident it will – we will not sit back and let criminals invade and take over our neighbourhoods.

There are very few substitutes in policing for ‘boots on the ground’ – visible officers deployed to high-crime areas. One way in which we have been able to boost our visible policing is through the Law Enforcement Advancement Programme (LEAP), our partnership programme with Province.

It is one thing to deploy these extra LEAP officers to help the South African Police Service fight crime, but it is quite another to see the results of these deployments reflected in the crime statistics. The recently released figures for October to December 2024 show that our LEAP officers are winning critical battles in the fight against gangs, drugs and firearm crimes.

Arrests for illegal firearms are up dramatically in crime hotspots where we have deployed these officers. Firearm arrests are up by 33% in Mitchells Plain, by 40% in Philippi East, by 70% in Delft, and by a massive 94% in Gugulethu. That’s a significant number of guns taken off our streets. There is similar good news in terms of arrest numbers for drug offences in our LEAP deployment areas. Drug arrests are up by 43% in Delft, by 62% in Khayelitsha, by 114% in Gugulethu, and astonishingly, by 333% in Philippi East.

Of course, we would love to play a bigger role in securing prosecutions following these arrests through quality investigative police work. Nevertheless, it is still very encouraging to know that our LEAP officers are making such a clear impact. Every gun and unit of drugs taken off the streets makes Cape Town communities safer.

When you add the positive effect of our massive investment in crimefighting technologies such as gunshot detection, aerial surveillance, drones, security cameras and automatic licence plate recognition, there is no doubt that we are getting maximum value from our limited policing powers. Bit by bit, we are making steady progress towards a safer Cape Town for all.

Geordin Hill-Lewis
Cape Town Mayor