At least 10 police stations in the Cape Peninsula and Stellenbosch have been fitted with panic buttons linked to armed response security companies in the past few months. This protection has been installed at Claremont, Hout Bay, Stellenbosch, Table View, Sea Point, Maitland, Camps Bay, Simon's Town, Fish Hoek and Durbanville. Grassy Park police station is guarded by a private company. Sea Point police station has a closed-circuit television system that is monitored by a security firm.
Although the new security arrangements - provided free - embarrass police, they are not without benefit. Two Sundays ago, a policeman at Sea Point used a panic button to call for help after three alleged gang rapists overpowered him and snatched his gun. Luckily, he had removed the pistol's magazine before entering the alleged rapists' cell for a routine, early-morning inspection. The four police on duty at the time were soon joined by a patrol from an armed response company and the attackers were returned to their cell. Another security firm has a contract to post guards with the Flying Squad in Pinelands.
In Hout Bay, where police do not have a proper police station, residents recently launched a non-profit company, Blues Buddies, to finance a private police service. Police and armed response firms are also jointly monitoring emergency radio services as part of growing co-operation between private sector and police, who say they are understaffed and under-resourced. Provincial Community Safety Minister Mark Wiley has described the situation as a "most unsatisfactory practice" and he is asking Safety and Security Minister Steve Tshwete to visit the Western Cape to see for himself the impact of staff shortages and threats to police.
Coming after several daring raids on police stations and the bombing of some, the new security arrangements are meant to discourage criminal gangs and urban terrorists from seeing police stations as easy sources of weapons or cash. However, some of the police stations that are linked to security firms had their systems installed before high-profile attacks. This year, five policemen have been murdered - four of them on duty - in the Western Cape. Since the beginning of the year, there have been a number of attacks on Cape Town police.
- January 3: five armed, masked men strolled through a broken gate at Claremont police station at 3am, locked up police officers and escaped with weapons, radios and bulletproof vests.
- January 14: top Pagad investigator Benny Lategan was ambushed and killed on the R300.
- January 28: six people were injured when a bomb exploded outside the central police station at Caledon Square during lunch hour.
- February 19: Pagad investigator Schalk Visagie was shot and seriously wounded on the M5.
- March 9: a masked gang of seven grabbed 12 guns, ammunition and two radios in a raid on Stellenbosch police station in Bird Street.
- May 9: a car bomb exploded outside Athlone police station. Children in nearby backyards were hit by glass fragments.
- June 6: three armed men tied up a policeman at Harare police station in Khayelitsha and stole three guns and 18 rounds of ammunition.
Mr Wiley said: "It is a sad day in any country if the police must be reliant on the handouts of others to ensure their (own) safety."
Source: IoL
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