As a busy festive season draws to a close, the City of Cape Town has praised local law enforcement for their efforts to ensure safety on the roads and in the communities over a bumper holiday period.
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Between 1 December 2022 and 2 January 2023, the City’s enforcement agencies made 1,291 arrests, recovered 33 firearms and issued thousands of fines for various transgressions. Alcohol confiscations increase year-after-year, and the emergency services too had their hands full.
Law enforcement officers also made 686 arrests and issued 23,070 fines for various transgressions.
In addition, LEAP officers recovered 22 firearms and made 25 arrests linked to the recovery of firearms and/or imitation firearms.
Metro Police officers made 332 arrests and issued 13,605 fines for traffic and by-law transgressions. Officers also recovered 11 firearms, six imitation firearms and 240 rounds of ammunition, with 24 arrests.
On the city’s streets, traffic officers arrested 273 motorists for driving under the influence of alcohol and 46 for reckless and negligent driving. They also executed 4,667 warrants, impounded 515 public transport vehicles and recorded 272,682 transgressions.
It was also a busy period for Cape Town’s emergency services with Fire & Rescue responding to a total of 3,442 emergency incidents.
Among these were approximately 1,800 vegetation fires, 269 informal structural fires, 439 motor vehicle accidents, 167 pedestrians knocked down and 145 trauma incidents. During the period, 27 people died as a result of fires.
The Public Emergency Communication Centre recorded 22,410 incidents, of which 39% were calls for medical assistance and 19% related to by-law transgressions.
In addition, they also recorded 1,501 calls relating to assault cases, 617 motor vehicle and pedestrian accidents, 520 cases of domestic violence, 219 complaints about drinking in public, 201 calls related to self-harm and 111 complaints related to the illegal sale and/or discharge of fireworks.
The City’s Disaster Risk Management Centre played a pivotal role in coordinating the response to the high stages of loadshedding experienced in December, as did the City’s multi-agency Festive Season Coordinating Committee.
Staff also conducted assessments following 130 fires at informal and formal residential premises and three flooding incidents at informal structures.
A total of 415 staff members and DRMC volunteers were deployed to beaches and major events, including sporting events, festivals and the Tweede Nuwejaar and Cape Malay road marches.
“It has been an incredibly busy festive season and our staff have stood up to the challenges as well as our resources have allowed,” said the City’s Mayoral Committee Member for Safety and Security, JP Smith.”The task was made more challenging by the behaviour of a minority who has no regard for the law, and no interest in taking accountability for their own actions.”
“Our alcohol confiscations soared and while there is a drop in the overall litres confiscated, that is only because people are employing different tactics to get alcohol into our public spaces.”
Also read:
Public abuse of alcohol top priority for festive season law enforcement
Picture: Cape{town}Etc Library