SAP To Release Crime States More Frequently 1
Minister of Safety and Security Charlses Ncqakula has decided that the SAP can release crime statistics at a greater frequency than their current annual release. It seems that they finally realised that it is easier for communities involved in crime prevention (community crime prevention being an initiative the Minister keeps on trotting out every few months) if the community in question knows which kind of crimes to focus on.
These reports will be purely at a local station level, national statistics will continue to only be released annually however an enterprising individual should be able to collate the local reports into some sort of national number. That being said it’s a bit of an about turn from the department which previously ridiculed calls for an increased frequency in the release of crime stats.
The problem many people have is that they don’t live in what one might term a ‘community’. In a real community, everybody knows most everybody else, and word of mouth travels very fast. In my village we have a community newsrag which appears every two weeks, and even the smallest incident gets coverage. OK, I live in a small town, whereas people in cities tend to never meet their next-door neighbours, never speak to the plumber, the local shops’ staff, or the guy who runs their garden service. That’s their problem. Because, if people only made the effort, they’d be fully clued up about the goings-on around them and could take the necessary precautions, all without having to go and plead with our esteemed Minister of Insecurity.