WINDHOEK SELMA IKELA
City Police Senior Superintendent Gerry Shikesho says the number of stolen cars leaving Windhoek has dropped significantly thanks to the use of closed-circuit television (CCTV) cameras.
Shikesho says all exits from the city are covered. "We've got cameras at all roadblocks. As a result of that, theft of motor vehicles has gone down completely because the moment we receive information that the vehicle has been stolen in the city, the vehicle cannot get out of Windhoek. If all exit points are covered then the car is in the city and we have zonal policing within the city," he said.
"We are going to stubbornly maintain the status quo, he added.
Shikesho said this during a media tour around the city organised by the City Police last Thursday. The City Police took the media to their CCTV control room, to Newcastle Street in the Northern Industrial Area where there is a problem with street vendors, and the Brakwater area where women sell themselves.
Shikesho said they have about 70 cameras around the city. "How we place the cameras at certain places is informed by our statistics. If, for instance, we have a specific spot where we have a problem with handbag snatching then we put up a camera," he said.
Shikesho said after the installation of cameras they have seen a migration of crime.
He explained that their members in the monitoring room inform officers on the ground if they notice suspicious movements.
Shikesho said apart from using cameras, they are using other supportive branches like the crime intelligence, gang suppression, crime suppression and bicycle squad who are all members on the ground.
While in Newcastle Street, the City Police's Divisional Head of Traffic Management, Deputy Chief Adam Eiseb, said besides taxis blocking the road and street vendors selling at unauthorised places, another challenge is companies misusing the road reserve.
"All activities you see along the streets are illegal because the business is being carried outside the building line of the industry and if you go further with the streets trucks are being constructed within the road reserve in areas meant for pedestrians.
"The oil, grease and dangerous substances are deposited on the road, eventually during rainy season you find it washed off and it enters the drinking water stream. As you know we reclaim water in the city. It adds up to a bigger problem," Eiseb said.
Shikesho added that three murders and number of robberies have been reported in the Brakwater area in the last two years "Most of the time men will run from this area naked, after they are robbed of everything," he said. He urged people to put their safety first.