Planning for crime prevention: The case of the city of Tshwane

Chapter 6

A score card for experiences in centre staging crime prevention in the City of Tshwane

There are several so-called 'best practices' and examples of initiatives and approaches that contribute towards the effective establishment of crime prevention as a local mandate in the City of Tshwane. At the same time, some difficulties have been experienced in trying to establish this mandate. In the following section a brief overview of some of the lessons that could be learned from the Tshwane case study are discussed.

What seemed to work well to effectuate crime prevention as a local mandate

The approach to crime prevention that was followed in Tshwane strongly recognises the link between crime prevention and urban governance and management. The link between safety and development was also evident in the recent integrated development planning process of the municipality, in which crime prevention was centre staged.

In line with this, the City of Tshwane seems to have taken full responsibility for its local crime prevention mandate. Considerable effort went into the establishment of a Metropolitan Police Department, and to successfully transform the former Traffic Police and Security Units of the Municipality and perceptions thereof through extensive training and capacity-building. Together with this the establishment of the Crime Prevention Unit as an integral part of the Metropolitan Police Department also provides the opportunity for crime prevention to take place on an equal footing with policing, and to form an integral part of activities of the Metropolitan Police Department and of the municipality.

The setting up of a Crime Prevention Strategy development process, a city-wide Crime Prevention Forum, and the development of a Tshwane Crime Prevention Strategy within less than a year of the establishment of the Metropolitan Police Department and Crime Prevention Unit is a remarkable achievement in itself. This process also provided an arena 'where everybody [could] play a role',¹and a platform for all the affected parties and role players to play their respective parts in crime prevention.

One of the major advantages to the City of Tshwane's approach to crime prevention is that it can be tackled in an integrated as well as consolidated way through the co-operation of different role players and multi-agency approaches (MAP),² resulting in a broad approach towards addressing crime, ie:
- the prevention of crime through proactive policing, the involvement of other crime fighting
  role players, and the use of up to date information and statistics
- social crime prevention by providing support programmes to the victims of crime
- indirectly addressing causes for crime (such as poverty and social circumstances) and its
  environmental dimension.
It is evident that there is agreement amongst various role players that one of the key advantages of crime prevention in Tshwane is an established history of co-operation amongst the respective role players, as well as a track record of successful joint operations, especially in terms of proactive crime prevention policing efforts.

Critical factors in almost all of the success stories are:
- High impact operations in terms of visibility and coverage that contributes to crime prevention, the raising of awareness, proactive policing and the image of the police forces³
- Effective utilisation of existing resources with the maximum impact
- Efficient use of information and technology, such as GIS
- Good working relations and co-operation between role players and a willingness and commitment of various individuals to join forces in planning and implementation of operations
- Successful inter-provincial border and cross-city co-operation
- Education and building the image of the police forces
- The trust of the community.
It should be recognised that the strong mandate for an integrated approach to crime prevention of the SAPS enable them to actually play the leading role in crime prevention activities and operations that are related to policing in the city. This seems to provide quite a strong framework for the Metropolitan Police to provide support in terms of resources and specific activities. On the other hand it also provides the opportunity for the Metropolitan Police to place emphasis on, and take the lead, in terms of social crime prevention and environmental design. Various examples were provided by the SAPS and the Metropolitan Police of where community and business partnerships have used this framework to contribute towards crime prevention in their respective areas.
Difficulties in effectuating crime prevention as a local mandate

In the case of the City of Tshwane, the most important lesson learnt is around the establishment of a Crime Prevention Unit as a core function in the Metropolitan Police. Even though this is regarded as a pioneering initiative with regards to crime prevention, it also has a danger associated with it. This revolves around the fact that even though crime prevention is supposed to be practiced in an integrated and holistic manner, it ends up as the responsibility of the Metropolitan Police Department and obviously the specific unit, with other departments and units in the municipality, as stated, not even aware of its existence. The resulting duplication of services and the fact that crime prevention is once again seen as a function of the Metropolitan Police Department and its partners and not that of the local authority in general, is not conducive to the establishment of crime prevention as central to local government operations, planning and implementation.

Integrated development planning provides a good opportunity for crime prevention to be addressed holistically and strategically. Crime prevention as a cross-cutting issue should actually play a prominent role within an integrated approach at developmental local government. In Tshwane's case it has also been highlighted as a key priority on a city-wide level. The IDP, as well the planning processes and forums that were set up to facilitate the process, could have been utilised to ensure that crime prevention was prioritised within the plans and programs of all council departments and programs. However, crime prevention was addressed merely as a strategy of a sector department in the Tshwane IDP.⁴ The IDP planning section has not taken cognisance of the development process, outcomes or impact as encapsulated in the Crime Prevention Strategy. This actually negates the holistic approach and destroys the concept of integration as set out in both the IDP and the Crime Prevention Strategy.

Another major difficulty is the institutional transformation and organisational implications related to the establishment of the Metropolitan Police Department. This initiative was undertaken with a strong dose of enthusiasm and creativity, but can be jeopardised by the lack of progress with the organisational transformation process and an institutional context in which resources and capacity are limited. And, as indicated earlier on, while a lot of training and reorientation initiatives have taken place, and staff were re-employed and received new tasks and uniforms, no permanent appointments or salary adjustments have been made for several months, which is having a negative impact on the morale of the staff. A review of articles published in local newspapers since the inception of the Metropolitan Police Department also paints a very negative picture and public image, repeatedly highlighting cases of corruption by members.⁵

New organisational structures can also hamper operational activities as is evident in the confusion caused by the way in which the eight Operational Regions of the Metropolitan Police have been demarcated, apparently without a concern for the location of the police stations in the Tshwane area.⁶

One of the major stumbling blocks and concerns is the limited number of resources available for crime prevention at a local level. This not only requires innovative techniques in terms of local initiatives, but also places a strong emphasis on partnerships and the role of individuals and local businesses. In this regard especially the sharing of resources needs to be more creative, as initiatives are sometimes stifled by legislation and unwieldy structures.⁷

The fact that most of the so-called 'holistic' crime prevention initiatives are co-ordinated by the Metropolitan Police and the City of Tswhane Crime Prevention Forum and Unit could result in limited ownership or future exclusion in crime prevention initiatives by other role players. The critical role, mandates and areas of responsibility of the SAPS and other role players should not be watered down, and could for example be stated much more explicitly and dealt with in greater detail within the Tshwane Crime Prevention Strategy.

Other stumbling blocks influencing crime prevention in the City of Tshwane are:
- The persistent rising levels of crime, and the increasing growth of poverty in metropolitan areas
- The changing nature of crime trends and tendencies, and planning for differences in terms of targets, places, suspects, victims, and crime patterns
- The difficulty in providing a wide range of services in an equally wide range of areas, ranging from informal areas where there are no street names and/or house numbers to high income areas where there are private security firms and crime prevention initiatives in operation
The difficulty in monitoring crime prevention, the use of quantitative versus qualitative techniques, and the co-ordination of information from various sources.

Foot Notes

Ahomed, Burkenstock.
According to Ahomed & Burkenstock (2002), the city's approach together with that of other role players (ie SAPS, Correctional Services etc) ensures a multi-agency approach, centred on the environment, victims and offenders (see Shaw A Safer Cities and Towns Programme for South Africa 4).
The perceptions of police effectiveness seem to play a crucial role in community trust and perceptions regarding safety (see eg Executive Summary: Analysing Crime in Cape Town. Monograph No 23. Institute for Security Studies. April 1998. http://www.iss.org.za/Pubs/Monographs20030309).
City of Tshwane Integrated Development Plan for the City of Tshwane. Mbatha.
A search was done on published newspaper articles that make reference to the Tshwane Metropolitan Police Department since its inception till March 2003, for two widely read newspapers in Tswhane, namely Beeld and Pretoria News.
Van Rhyn.
Van Deventer.

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