Governments double-up trial redeployment plan has been revealed in an effort to combat crime in the province and city, Cape {town} Etc reports.
Since 2020, the Western Cape Government and the City of Cape Town have trained, equipped, staffed, managed and deployed over 1 000 Law Enforcement Action Plan (LEAP) officers in Cape Town.
The initiative serves as a force multiplier to the South African Police Service (SAPS) in response to the national governments persistent inability to carry out its constitutional duty to deploy police personnel to keep the public safe.
The tough reality is that SAPS in the Western Cape is under-staffed and under-funded. In March 2024 we had 16 424 SAPS officers deployed to our province with 1 757 vacancies, but actually what we need is to dramatically increase SAPS policing numbers by the thousands to make a real difference on our streets and in our communities, said Western Cape Minister of Police Oversight and Community Safety Anroux Marais.
Critical lessons have been learnt since LEAPs initial deployment, and the newly signed cooperation agreement with SAPS allows LEAP partners to reevaluate deployment patterns and explore different tactics to make Cape Town safer.
