The City of Cape Town (COCT) says its CCTV system is continuing to deliver good results after more than 15 000 incidents were detected in the last financial year. According to the COCT, during this time, the number of cameras also increased by 52, from 783 in 2019/20 to 835 in 2020/21.
Also read: COCT’s CCTV system continues to deliver good results
In this past week, residents of Heideveld and CCTV cameras in Bellville were key role-players in the arrest of drug suspects by Cape Town’s Metro Police.
A total of 221 suspects were arrested and 80 681 fines were issued by the City’s Traffic Services, Metro Police and Law Enforcement, the City said on Monday, reports IOL.
Two suspects were arrested for possession of drugs on Sunday, 13 February in Heideveld, thanks to the vital role of the community, while the Metro Police K9 Unit and Tactical Response Unit confiscated 100 units of heroin.
In a separate incident, CCTV operations in Bellville detected a suspected drug deal and alerted officers to investigate on Wednesday, 9 February.
“At around 9am, the officers spotted the suspect and informed him of the reason for their presence. The officers were directed via the CCTV operators to the vicinity where he was spotted dealing in drugs and found fifty-eight and a half Mandrax tablets and 13 bankies of dagga. The suspect also had R440 in his possession,” the City adds.
Earlier this year, the City’s Mayoral Committee Member for Safety and Security, Alderman JP Smith discussed the importance of CCTV cameras.
“CCTV cameras are a great addition to our enforcement efforts, and they’re even more useful when the response on the ground is able to match the real-time visuals feeding through to our operators. That is why the City continuously strives to increase its resources, not just in the pursuit of visible policing, but also to ensure speedier response times where incidents are reported to our Public Emergency Communications Centre or detected on our CCTV system,” Smith said.
66 out of the 134 arrests made by the Metro Police were drug-related in this past week.
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