Residents of Lerato Park and Lethabo Park want their own satellite police station and have given the police 14 days in which to respond to complaints about a lack of service at Roodepan police station.
RESIDENTS of Lerato Park and Lethabo Park want their own satellite police station and have given the police 14 days to respond to complaints over a lack of service at Roodepan police station.
The Lerato Park community marched to the police station on Wednesday to hand over a memorandum, stating that they were regularly turned away at the charge office when they tried to lay a criminal complaint.
Community organiser Shadrack Magano said complainants were instructed to bring the exhibits, such as the stolen goods, along with the suspect to the police before a charge was opened.
“We do not have the manpower to arrest someone and take them to the police station. Some of these suspects are too dangerous to confront. How are we supposed to find the items that were stolen from us? They must open a satellite police station with enough resources and vehicles in Lerato Park that is operational 24 hours per day, seven days per week as there is a lot of crime in our area. We don’t want the community to resort to mob justice,” said Magano.
He added that there were never any police vehicles available and there was also a shortage of drivers.
“If you are lucky a vehicle might arrive up to three hours later to a crime scene; sometimes they just never come. The criminals are galavanting in the streets, but when we report these incidents to the police they tell us to first bring the evidence.”
Magano also stated that no action was taken to close down illegal scrap yards or drug houses.
A local resident, Melvin Lottering, said that the police had never visited his shack to take fingerprints after he suffered a housebreaking incident on July 14.
“They stole my electricity box, hot plate, new boots and about six old phones. On July 21 suspects broke into my house again,” said Lottering.
The Roodepan police station commander, Colonel Pieter Jansen, who accepted the memorandum from the community members, said they would respond within the next 14 days.
“We will draft a letter and send it to the cluster provincial commissioner,” said Jansen.
