Cape Town is getting a new command centre designed to bring more of the city’s policing technology together under one roof.
The City’s new Joint Public Safety Operations Centre (JPSOC) in Goodwood is nearing completion, with Mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis describing the 8 000m² facility as the next major step in coordinating the City’s policing and safety operations.
Hill-Lewis visited the centre on Monday, 31 August, with Mayoral Committee Member for Safety and Security Alderman JP Smith, where they received an update on the progress of the facility.
The idea is fairly straightforward: instead of safety technologies operating separately across the metro, the new centre will bring information together to give officers a clearer picture of what is happening on the ground.
A digital command centre for Cape Town
The JPSOC will connect a range of technologies already being used by the City, as well as newer systems being introduced.
These include:
- Drones operated by the City’s Aviation Unit and third-party providers
- Body-worn cameras
- In-vehicle cameras
- Automatic number plate recognition (ANPR)
- Citizen and Trusted Partner Apps
- Artificial intelligence and automation
This builds on Cape Town’s existing emergency and safety communication network. The City’s Public Emergency Communication Centre already serves as a central point for residents to report life- or property-threatening emergencies and distributes requests to the relevant emergency services.
The new JPSOC takes that coordination concept further, with a specific focus on bringing policing resources and digital surveillance tools together.
Thousands of cameras already in the field
The scale of the City’s existing technology network is becoming increasingly significant.
Smith said the City’s body-worn camera rollout is expected to reach almost 3 000 cameras in the field.
A further 530 enforcement vehicles are equipped with in-vehicle cameras featuring ANPR technology, as well as printers that can be used for warrants and summonses.
The City’s Metro Police Strategic Surveillance Unit also detected 41 005 incidents through CCTV during the 2025/26 period.
Those detections resulted in 541 arrests, according to the City, representing an 18% increase from the previous year.
For residents, this means that the new centre is not simply about constructing another building. It is intended to become the point where information from cameras, vehicles, drones and officers can be brought together in real time.
SAPS is also using the City’s footage
Another development highlighted by the City is the growing use of its surveillance footage by SAPS.
According to Smith, requests from SAPS to view City footage as a potential investigative resource increased by 35%.
The City says the wider use of digital footage could strengthen the evidentiary value of information available to investigators and potentially improve the chances of successful prosecutions.
The centre will also allow officers to stream live footage from their mobile cameras, while drone, ANPR and CCTV information can be incorporated into the same operational picture.
More than technology
The City has linked the new facility to its wider policing expansion.
Hill-Lewis said the City had added 1 300 policing officers during the current term of office, taking its policing personnel to more than 3 800 officers.
He also said the JPSOC would strengthen the City’s role as a partner to SAPS in tackling crime.
The Mayor has further argued that the City’s policing services should have expanded powers to investigate gang, gun and drug crime.
That makes the JPSOC an important part of a much bigger conversation about how Cape Town responds to crime: not only how many officers are on the streets, but how quickly information can move between those officers and the teams coordinating them.
What the new centre could mean for Cape Town
The City is presenting the JPSOC as a major move towards more connected policing.
For people living in communities affected by crime, the technology itself is unlikely to be the measure of success. The real test will be whether faster information-sharing and better coordination translate into quicker responses and stronger investigations.
For now, the City says the Goodwood facility is almost ready to become its major new coordination hub for policing and safety technology.
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Picture: City of Cape Town
