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Secure village a myth
A Forest Town family became the fourth victims of armed robbery in their block in less than eighteen months.
They were greeting guests in their driveway at about 7.30pm on Saturday 10 May when the automatic closed gates burst open to admit 3 armed men. Guns were held to their heads as everyone was forced to lie down on the driveway.
The robbers were in their twenties and early thirties and were well spoken. When the owners' nine year old daughter looked up from the bricks, one of the robbers said, "Close the baby's eyes, I don't want her to have to see a Trauma Counsellor."
They went into the house through the open front door where they held up the owner and 2 guests. Upstairs, they held a gun to the head of the 16 year old son, told him to lie down on the floor and asked him for his gun. The robbers rejected a watch as "rubbish" and the father was slapped across the face when he said he didn't have a safe. One of the guests who carried a gun (because he was once a victim of hijacking) was forced to hand it over. They also took a small amount of jewellery and one cellphone.
New Forest Road, close to the Forest Town School, has been the scene of several incidents of serious crime. The family are angry with the Forest Town Secure Village. "The dogs were barking like mad, and there were two patrol vehicles outside," said the owner. She wants to know what they were doing and why they only responded when the alarm was activated after the robbers had left.
Parkview SAPS, security companies and people in the know have been saying for ages that the driveway is the most dangerous place on your property. "I will never go out to greet guests again," said the owner, "I'll rather let them in from inside the house."
We, the Forest Town Secure Village (FTSV) Committee, note with interest the article posted on this website titled "Secure Village a Myth" and wish to hereby provide some context.
Crime is probably one of the most pressing issues affecting the www.myparks.co.za reader-demographic and we as the Forest Town Secure Village Committee share the community's angst in this respect. The pervasiveness of violent crime, and indeed the perception that such crime is on the increase, leaves each one of us feeling frustrated and helpless.
In June 2003 the residents of Forest Town harnessed their frustration and, rather than continue to treat crime as internet blog-fodder and dinnertime conversation, resolved to do something constructive about the issue. This resulted in the establishment of the Forest Town Secure Village, an initiative established to take back safety in the suburb by aggregating the security-spend and efforts of the whole suburb. From the outset the initiative received unrivalled support from residents (more than 85% of the residents in the suburb belong to the initiative) and it has become the benchmark for security initiatives in the wider Johannesburg-North area.
Weekly crime statistics show that, since the introduction of the initiative, crime has decreased by some 80% (from 5 instances per week in the 12 months prior to the security initiative - including attempted break-ins and robberies - to one instance per week on average since the initiative's inception) and it has been our experience that managing the security needs of the suburb collectively through a cohesive initiative, is much more effective than the previously disjointed approach (similar to the one lamented by Mr Richard Dancer, head of the Parkview Community Policing Forum, as currently prevailing in that area see his speech to the Parkview residents AGM also posted on www.myparks.co.za).
Having said this, a number of recent incidents including those highlighted in your feature article of last week ("Secure Village a Myth") has again emphasised the need for continued vigilance and that a dynamic approach to ensuring the highest possible level of safety is maintained in the suburb. While no suburb-wide security initiative can provide a substitute for personal alertness when it comes to averting instances of opportunistic crime, the frequency of armed robberies in the specific area in Forest Town, which is highlighted in the article, is of great concern and the reasons for the high incidence of crime in that specific area are being considered. Each instance of crime in Forest Town, including the most recent instance, referred to in the aforementioned article is, as a matter of fact, evaluated by both the service provider (24/7) and also representatives from the FTSV committee to ensure that no opportunity for improving the service is overlooked. This process continuously highlights opportunities for improvement, thereby allowing the initiative to evolve and keep up with the ever-enterprising criminals. The latest enhancement which we are very excited about is the installation of CCTV cameras at key areas in the suburb, a measure which we hope will enable Forest Town to continue to live up to its Secure Village claim!
