Danielle Dooley

Information was received that a business break-in was going to take place at Fabric Fusion in the Value Mart Centre in Pineslopes. on Saturday evening November 12, 2011. The suspects had approached one of the guards from Fidelity, the security company for the centre, to inform him of the break in. The guard reported the tip off to his security company who informed members of the Douglasdale SAPS.

A stake out was organised and police officers and security guards held position for the suspected break-in, at around 9.20pm they spotted two unarmed suspects on the roof of the centre. They used a cutter to cut through the roof in five places looking for a spot to enter the premises. By 11pm they were inside the store.

While the suspects were in the store, police made their way onto the roof and lay in wait, when the suspects exited through the roof they were surrounded and had no way of escape and were arrested immediately on the charges of business break-in.

At 12.05 the owner of the store was informed of the break-in by his security company. No injuries occurred and nothing was stolen from the store.

The suspects have appeared in the Randburg Magistrate Court.

The owner of Fabric Fusion said he would like to extend a big thank to Douglasdale Police and to Fidelity from himself and all the staff. – www.myfourways.co.za

2011 is here and little stands still for the Douglasdale Community Policing Forum. All sectors are fully operational after the Christmas break and November 2011 saw a 12% drop in crime stats and December 2010 and January 2011 a massive 40% drop in crime stats in the precinct. This is the success we all seek when the community and Police operate together.

There are some rally exciting developments happening at SAPS Douglasdale. Firstly the new state of the art Generator and UPS power supply is in the process of being installed. The station shall henceforth be completely self sufficient when it comes to power outages and computers and radio equipment will also not suffer disruption when power supplies are uncertain.

Secondly, the station is in the process of having a complete re wiring of its IT infrastructure with fibre optic cable and Cisco switching units being installed vastly speeding up computer access and investigation information. A new hub and SAPS IT equipment is being fitted throughout the station and this will be followed by the new SAPS computer systems and desk tops.

The Douglasdale Community Policing Forum has been asked to secure another ten vehicles to assist the workload on current transport capabilities as the 24/7 patrols are having the desired effect on crime but maintenance down time is beginning to work against the station. Negotiations with vehicle dealerships to secure a good package have been completed and fundraising has begun in earnest. Watch this space for developments.

A further 36 Reservists shall be coming onto strength at the station during the course of this year thereby increasing personnel availability substantially.

But perhaps the most exciting development for the early part of this year is that the Douglasdale Community Policing Forum and the SAPS Douglasdale shall be hosting a national first Police “open day”. In essence, the public shall be invited to come to the station where all detectives and station management will be available on a Saturday morning to answer queries on how dockets and investigations into their cases are progressing. The accountability and transparency is designed to vastly improve community police interaction, identify problems and find solutions to ensure as many successful prosecutions and conclusions to cases as possible. The Community Policing Forum will be present in force to promote awareness about the forum and encourage participation, provide refreshments and to showcase the benefits of police public interaction. Again watch this space for developments.

The Douglasdale Community Police Forum, together with co sponsors, Volvo SA, Consol Glass, Palms For You, Jesus Alive Ministries, Monte Casino, Sweets From Heaven, Daily Bread, Pick N Pay Douglasdale, Berco Logistics, Southern Mapping, and many private donors hosted a Christmas Party for the children of Kya Sands and surrounds at the Judah Church grounds adjacent Kya Sands on Saturday 4^th December.

 The children were able to play on jumping castles, sing along to the SAPS Band, plant trees as part of the earth day celebrations and were entertained by various artists and singers. Community Police Forum members, celebrities, City Councillors, volunteers and visitors spent quality time with the children, many of whom come from broken or absentee homes and fun was had by all. At midday nearly 1000 children were fed by Jesus Alive Ministries who provided a cooked protein meal and hungry tummies were soon filled to capacity with some of the young boys eating double portions.

Security and crowd control was provided by the SAPS and RSS Security and Fire units and ER 24 were also in attendance in numbers as were the newly graduated Kya Sands Community Patrollers. Huge quantities of water had to be transported to the site for food preparation and drinking not to mention washing up, watering newly planted trees and fun for the kids. Over 14 000 litres of water were provided by the fire department in a bowzer and a fire tender and further additional drinking water was brought in with the Fourways Gardens water tender.

At 4pm the event really took an exciting turn when Santa (Craig Anderson) arrived in a fire tender with sirens blaring and lights flashing.  The children were initially afraid of this man dressed in red but quickly warmed to him as the minutes passed. The Judah church tent was bedecked with Christmas decorations and a large Christmas tree and it took nearly an hour for the large group of volunteers to unload thousands of presents and boxes of sweets and Milo shakes. The Douglasdale Community Police Forum was able, with the help of our generous precinct members and public, to collect enough toys and sweets for 5000 children. For instance 4200 soccer balls had to be inflated and toys, books and model cars and fluffy animals were wrapped at a “wrap” party hosted by  Monte Casino the evening before the Christmas party.

The excitement, joy and gratefulness on the faces of the many hundreds of children who received presents and sweet treats was simply awesome to see. Surplus toys and sweets are in the process of being distributed by Daily Bread the official Douglasdale Community Police Forum social outreach arm.

A massive thank you to all our sponsors and supporters, to Charmaine McGinley, head of Daily Bread, to Margaret and Martin van Zwieten , Gerry De Beer, Charmaine Zambetti, Sue Mottram,  Jene Godfrey, Cherise Baggio , Sean Mooney and his team, Ann Pretorius and her team, the Randburg and Lonehill Fire stations and staff,  Pator and team from Judah Chruch, Maj or General Reddy, Bragdier Naidoo, Colonel Maharaj and the SAPS Douglasdale team and the SAPS Band and last but by no means least, you the generous members of the Douglasdale precinct public without which none of this would have been possible.

On Friday November 12, 2020 there was a planned protest in Kya Sand, around 3000 residents from the informal settlement marched down Malibongwe Drive towards Kya Sand holding banners and singing in protest over housing, sanitation and living conditions.

“It’s a peaceful protest… about issues surrounding housing in the area… lack of housing and bad sanitation,” said Warrant Officer Balan Muthan of Douglasdale police station.

Muthan said the march, which had disrupted traffic, started at 9am and ended at about 1pm, residents handed over a memorandum of their requests to area Councillor john Mendelsohn.

There was a strong police presence, with members of Metro police and Douglasdale SAPS, security companies were also involved.
Community leader Billy Modikwe said that many residents were promised housing in February this year but still no one has come back to them.

“We have terrible living conditions, when it rains it floods and many people aren’t able to get to work and we have to catch a taxi from one side of Kya Sand to the others as the river floods and we can’t get across. There is no access for emergency vehicles such as police and ambulance”, said Billy Modikwe.

“We are going to hand over a memorandum to our councillor and the MMC of Housing in the hope they take action and deliver their promises. Some residents have been waiting for housing since 2004”, added Billy Modikwe.

Douglasdale police held a series of road blocks in the area on October 1 2010, the first road block was on Cedar Road, they then moved to Olive Road in Olivedale, and then to Hornbill in Douglasdale, the aim of the operation was to be vigilant and create public awareness.

There have been cases reported of stolen vehicles from shopping centres in Olivedale and other areas, so officers were looking for stolen or suspicious vehicles. They checked driver’s licences, number plates and licence disks as well as looked in the vehicles to see if there were any suspicious items.

It was a great exercise, not only for law enforcement but for security and crime prevention.

Article from MyFourways.co.za: 

http://www.myfourways.co.za/crime-watch/police-set-road-blocks-fight-against-crime

Montecasino hosted an event at La Toscana to thank the SAPS for their hard word and dedication during the Soccer World Cup and keeping residents and visitors of Fourways and surrounding areas safe.

The event also bid farewell to the SAPS district commissioner Lieutenant General Naidoo who gave a speech of thanks to all the members of the SAPS he has had the pleasure of working with over the years. Steve Howell General Manager of Montecasino thanked the officers for the wonderful work they did during SWC.

The event was attended by police officers from all the cluster stations namely, Douglasdale, Randburg, Honeydew, Roodepoort and Florida police stations as well as the Cluster Commander Major General Reddy. Guests were treated dinner and drink and all enjoyed the evening.

Well the World Cup Football Tournament has come and gone and it’s almost an anti climax in the nation after what has been hailed as one of the safest, most profitable and best organized World Cups ever. Many thousands of visitors came and saw our nation from a tourist’s perspective and have indicated an intention to visit again such was their impression of South Africa. The predictions that massive numbers of visitors would fall victims of crime simply did not materialize and in fact almost without fail, our nation experienced a massive drop in criminal activity.

Whilst many may seek to take the accolades for this major achievement, there is little doubt that that the massive prayer coverage, the diligent work of all the law enforcement agencies, national defence force and customs as well as the various football administrators and event coordinators as well as FIFA itself, collectively resulted in the success that our nation enjoyed as the host of the 2010 Football World Cup.

That said, what lies ahead for the Douglasdale Community Police Forum post the 2010 World Cup?

Significant strides have been made in the police station upgrades and apart from certain aspects of IT and backup power sources, the bulk of the needed upgrades have now been completed. The Forum has purposed to focus its efforts in a number of different directions post World Cup. These include:

1. The collection of blankets, canned food and clothing into a reserve to assist the destitute, victims of xenophobia and generally to equip the Forum to be in a position to assist members of our precinct who may be adversely affected by crime;

2. To grow our support base from you the community in terms of financial contribution, awareness and physical participation in the various activities of the community police forum

3. To launch our anticipated loyalty programme with all the associated benefits to encourage community participation in the Forum and to suitably reward such activity

4. Emphasis will be placed on the provision of training programmes for the SAPS personnel to improve skills and effectiveness of personnel in the fight against crime and their interaction with the community they serve;

5. The finalization of the donation of a brand new state of the art police station for the Douglasdale SAPS and all the various negotiations and issues associated therewith;

6. To train Reservists and community patrollers to augment the numbers of personnel on the beat

7. Employ even more advances technology and community warning systems in the fight against crime;

All of these action points require and depend upon community support and involvement.  Its time for every community member to make a contribution and to give whatever they can be it financially, time, skills, service or goods or even a word of encouragement.  I challenge you the community member to make a difference and get involved!

Should you wish to get involved, email Jean Berdou or Julie on northwestcpf@mweb.co.za

Danielle Dooley
Entrepreneur and philanthropist Douw Steyn has generously donated, through the Douglasdale Community Police Forum, seven motor vehicles to SAPS Douglasdale, namely four VW patrol Golfs and three GTi high speed reaction vehicles.

The hand over took place on June 23, 2010 at the Douglasdale police station. Some of the police offers were awarded for work well done over the last few months and for outstanding service and bravery.

The Douglasdale Community Police Forum on behalf of the precinct community thanks Mr Steyn for his remarkable generosity and contribution to the fight against crime.

Cape Town – The police unveiled a wide ranging security project for the 2010 FIFA World Cup to MPs on Friday, with plans that include air sweeps by fighter jets, joint border patrols with neighbouring countries, police escorts for cruise ships and team security guards with “diplomat” training.

Police Lieutenant General Andre Pruis told Parliament’s portfolio committee on police that the police had been working closely with foreign intelligence agencies through the newly established Intelligence Co-ordinating Committee (ICC) and were prepared for any threat.

“The ICC operates in co-operation with intelligence services from all over the world and provides tactical intelligence that is flowing on a minute by minute basis,” he said.

“Every bit of tactical intelligence is collected and liaised with intelligence personnel so that action can be taken.”

Pruis said the police’s Special Task Force, the defence force’s special forces, the bomb squad and the National Intervention Unit would be on standby at games, with the defence force’s Seven Medical Battalion ready to deal “with any possible chemical, biological and radiological threat”.

Public order police, a large number of local and foreign security spotters and private security would work inside the stadiums.

Database of dangerous names

Fighter aircraft would be used to sanitise airspace before, during and after matches, Pruis said, adding that there would be a number of no-fly zones during the tournament.

A database of “dangerous names” would be kept to monitor spectators passing through turnstiles at the stadiums.

All vehicles entering the stadium would pass through a remote search spot.

Mass evacuation areas had been established outside stadiums, while the defence force would have a company in each province to provide major support in event of a disaster.

Ten kilometre cordons would be formed around stadiums with special focus on preventing domestic extremism, possible strike action and service delivery protests.

Pruis said each team had been assigned dedicated security liaison officers and “close protectors”.

“A police member will co-ordinate all security activities of each team. These officers have been specially trained in various fields.

“They also trained as diplomats so they know how to liaise and have skills in time management, for example.”

Assessing terrorism threat

Open practices would be done with tight security, equivalent to security on match day.
Pruis said the ICC was working with foreign intelligence agencies to assess the threat of terrorism to teams and during certain matches.

“We took participating countries and categorised them into high, medium and low risk,” Pruis said.

Profiles had been done on base camps and hotels and, where necessary, recommendations had been made to hotel security to step up security in areas such as access control, lifts and gyms to be used by teams.

Special routes and alternative routes with “safe havens” had been planned to transport teams from their bases to matches.

All teams would be tracked so that the police would know “where they are going and what they are doing”.

Borders would be monitored by satellite with information sent to the defence force about possible illegal crossings.

“What we have decided is that we will have joint operations centres with Zimbabwe, Botswana and Mozambique, where we will plan jointly on a daily basis,” Pruis said.

Airports monitored

Perimeters of the nine airports, eight domestic airports and military airports would be patrolled and monitored constantly.

The three sea ports to be used during the tournament, Port Elizabeth, Durban and Cape Town, were receiving special attention, with patrolling navy frigates patrolling the coast.

Pruis said the police knew the movements of the cruise ships coming to South Africa. The handing over of the cruise ship “from one country to another” had been arranged with Namibia and Angola.

“We will escort the ships into the harbour from 12 nautical miles out to sea,” he said.

Cross border trains that could be used by tourists would be monitored with the help of neighbours.

Pruis said several emergency points would be placed on long distance routes, such as the N1 highway between Pretoria and Bloemfontein.

“Between the police, the health department and defence force we are setting up emergency points with helicopter support. If there is a bus accident we will be able to provide first response support.”

“Special investigating teams” are in place at bars and restaurants likely to be used by visitors, while security was to be kept tight at public areas around the stadiums.

On Monday 3rd May, as reported in “The Star”, cash in transit activities were under way at Fourways Mall when two vehicle loads of armed would be robbers approached the security staff in order to effect an armed robbery. The robbers were detected by close circuit cameras on site and the Douglasdale SAPS were summoned to the scene. Within a few minutes, reacting police sirens were heard approaching from several directions and upon hearing the approach of the police, the would be robbers immediately fled in their vehicles without harming anyone or taking any cash or other items. The thwarting of armed robberies of this nature is clear evidence of the successful introduction of carefully prepared  security plans, the deployment of effective anti crime technology and regular interaction between security companies, the Douglasdale Community Police Forum( CPF) and the South African police. Lives were protected and assets were saved and a clear message sent out that to commit crime in this precinct is done at grave peril to the perpetrators.