CPNW NEWSLETTER AND AGM REPORT – JANUARY 2024

Dear Neighbours,

Burglary – and Arrests

In what was the second incident we have recorded in two months, we had a burglary last week in Beach Road that clearly targeted visitor accommodation. This incident took place in the early hours of 27 December and involved the theft of several cell phones and a laptop after a glass sliding door was forced open. Fortunately, the entire incident, which involved at least one vehicle and two passengers, was recorded on several of our cameras, and by 7 am SAPS had already identified the suspects through the vehicle licence plate number, effected arrests and recovered the goods!

We have provided SAPS with our camera records so they can be used as evidence. The only other incident we are aware of since our last newsletter in mid-October involved the theft of a baby-stroller from a property in Pine Rd, which was also recovered after the alarm was raised on Buzzer.

Whilst we would have preferred having no incidents to report, it is gratifying that the criminals were unsuccessful in both cases due to measures we have put in place. This, of course, also has important deterrent value. Please note, though, that this is generally an attractive time for criminals, particularly due to the number of visitors in the area who make ready targets, the financial challenges at the start of a year, and the sudden appearance of expensive new products in many homes.

Regarding visitors, we note with concern every year how many people expose themselves to danger by walking alone and/or carrying valuables to quieter areas of the beach. We encourage everyone to engage with any such folk to make them aware of the potential risks. Anyone visiting the area is also encouraged to register with Buzzer whilst they are here. This app can be downloaded from the Buzzer website at:  https://cpnw.org.za/buzzer/

We encourage anyone hosting guests to include this in their visitor information, with a short motivation about why it is useful to join!

Update: we’ve just had notice of another burglary in Willoughby Road that seems to have taken place on 31 December.  Entry was gained via a broken window and some items were taken.

SANParks Patrols

We are also pleased to note increased patrolling on the beach by SANParks rangers. They have now made a WhatsApp number available for their Operations Control Room for reporting any suspicious activity anywhere in Table Mountain National Park: 0718078374. Please save this number on your phone, as the increase in incidents in the park is a big concern and efforts to counter this need our support.

Bins

The other significant change worth commenting on since our last newsletter is the sustained and now almost uniform effort to avoid leaving rubbish bins out overnight. The change in our streets on Thursday evenings and even Friday mornings is remarkable, and we are certain this simple effort will have a significant impact on crime.

Thank you to everyone who came to our AGM on 13 November 2023. Thank you to those who have  enquired about year-end gratuities for our patrol Officers. We do pay this annually from member contributions, so there is no need to ask anyone for more at the moment! As agreed with our Security Providers we usually pay this in January and we will be giving each officer R1600.00 together with a letter thanking them for their contribution to our security.

AGM Summary

There follows a brief summary of proceedings at our AGM, but before doing so, we would like to wish everyone a safe and prosperous 2024!

AGM 2023

Thank you to everyone who came to our AGM, held on 13 November at the Community Centre. The full minutes will be available on the Website, once we have approved final corrections at our next meeting, but we thought it would be useful to include a summary of key points here:

Membership

64 members attended the meeting. We currently have 432 signed up members recorded on our database. This is up from 421 in the previous year. We do not currently have a confirmed number as to how many households there actually are in the CPNW Area, but we do know there are a total of 541 Erfs, some of which remain unoccupied, whilst others contain more than one residence. Although we would prefer even greater saturation, we believe this is a relatively high percentage membership for a Neighbourhood Watch and we feel this reflects our focus on developing a caring and connected community.

Whilst we wish more people would attend our AGM’s, volunteer time to help Committee Members (or become one), or do a patrol on the extremely rare occasions we request this, what is really important to us is that everyone is a member, and at least through that, forms a network that we can develop for our safety and security. Hence, we do not demand anything of our members, except to stay connected, the rest, including membership contributions, is up to you!

On a further note, regarding Community, we believe that what makes our, already naturally beautiful neighbourhood so much more special, is the high level of responsibility its residents take, for ensuring it remains so, and even gets better. In this respect we would like to salute the leadership shown by organizations such as the NRPA, NEAG, and the NRA, and the hard work by people in these groups and their affiliates, especially Project Noordhoeked, On the Verge, Toadnuts and the Common Committee. Thank you all!

Crime Report

We recorded a total of 16 incidents in the CPNW area in 2023. This is down from 21 last year but more than we had in 2020 (8) and 2021 (13). Overall, the trend is still downwards, and significantly so, when we compare this with the data we have from as far back as 2007, when we first started collecting it. The monthly average number of incidents was 7, we had months with more incidents than we now have in a year, and it was only in 2019 that our monthly average came down to below 2.

Importantly we did not have any home invasions this year, only one real contact crime, which was an attempted armed robbery at the Hoek, one burglary into an occupied building, with the rest being objects stolen from outbuildings or out of gardens, and 2 car break-ins in the beach parking lot.

On the good side we had far greater numbers of apparently deterred crimes, 1 arrest and two incidents where stolen property was retrieved.

This differs significantly from trends generally in Kommetjie and the Fishoek valley, where crime, including serious crime, remains on the increase.

2 big worries however, loom on our periphery:

The one relates to armed gangsters operating along Noordhoek Road and in the wetlands, creating a danger to many people who work in our area and then return home to Masi in particular, often by foot.

The second relates to similar characters operating along the beach, particularly for visitors. There have already been a couple of near-misses at the beach this year.

Public Space Safety and Security – Developing an Integrated Strategy

We have been in discussion with SAPS, Law Enforcement and SANParks about these issues and we have plans we would like to put into place, regarding oversights cameras covering these areas.   

We also believe that the key to safety in public spaces, whether they be on the periphery, or on our doorsteps like the Common and the Hoek, as well as our streets, relates to how actively we inhabit them – we need to assert our presence in these areas so that we know what is going on, who is familiar and who might be there for the wrong reasons.

This is not only about us getting better camera monitoring of areas at risk, and encouraging the security companies to take responsibility, but it is also about us using these spaces with confidence and mutual support. The Buzzer App has been a great asset too is this respect and getting the security companies to monitor this is a big step in shifting how we think about security from being simply about alarm systems in our homes to a whole neighbourhood approach.

We see public spaces as the first line of defence in any community, where the opportunity to stop crime before it even starts presents itself as a foundational principle of what try to do. Sean Moolenschot and Patrick Wright have actively engaged with the various stakeholders in the Valley, throughout the past year, with the aim of ensuring the security and safety of the public spaces in CPNW and in our Valley.

The Strategy for Public Space and Security is a multi-pronged one focusing on:

• Constant improvement and expansion of the CPNW Camera Monitoring Network


• Active Engagement with Security Companies Fidelity ADT (F-ADT) and Deep Blue Security (DBS)


• Active engagement with the broader Neighbourhood Watch Community in the Fish Hoek SAPS coverage area.


• Long Terms Comprehensive Public Space Safety Strategy - Noordhoek Community Improvement District (CID)

Cameras

The camera network is rapidly becoming our most powerful weapon and one that holds great hope for the future. We have two camera networks one for Licence Plate Recognition (LPR) and one with Overview Cameras. Initially all use of the cameras was primarily retrospective, but increasingly we are developing their use for proactive interventions, with Security Company monitoring and response and increasingly sophisticated analytic systems that can detect suspicious activity, so increasingly we are seeing events where the camera picks up a pedestrian at some odd hour of the night, and shortly thereafter an AR Vehicle arrives and investigates.

We currently have 8 LPR Cameras covering our entrances, as well as 22 Overview cameras. We are continuously widening this footprint, with an initial focus on boundaries, entry points and intersections but the potential is limited only by how much support our Camera Teams receives. So if there is one area we really need all kinds of volunteers, from people to simply canvass news hosts for camera sites rights through to those with IT and camera skills – it is for our Camera Project – let us know if you would like to help!

Security Company Liaison

We have actively engaged with both F-ADT and DBS, on an increasingly formal basis this year, to promote the adoption of a more Community-Centric monitoring model. We are in the process of implementing a monthly reporting requirement for both companies to provide key security information and feedback each month, including sharing of crime/incident data.  This ensures that incidents in our catchment area are recorded, followed up and the data points used for trend analysis and/or special intervention/operational interventions (such as Friday patrols to deal with suspicious bin pickers).

Liaison Beyond our Area

CPNW is interacting with neighbouring communities as part of a more integrated approach to crime and community information sharing in our valley. Specific Engagements with the broader Neighbourhood Watch Community in the Fish Hoek SAPS coverage area include attending monthly Joint Ops meetings at Fish Hoek SAPS and joining the Fish Hoek SAPS Crime Reporting and Tracking Messaging Forum, a real-time messaging forum has been very useful in reporting and tracking incidents in real-time.

We remain strongly in favour of the Noordhoek CID process that was started a few years ago with public space improvement, safety, and security as a key theme. We are working with the CID team to assist in reviving the initiative and integrating it with the CPNW overall security strategy.

Bin Night

As has been set out in this and other recent newsletters the strategy behind bin night was presented to the AGM. This has been supported by well over 90% of residents with a tangible improvement in crime risk at this time.

Radio Users Network

Our records reflect that there are a total of 181 hand-held radios in the area. This is also supported by a radio-users WhatsApp group. Although not everyone keeps their radios active, we have been gratified by how quickly this network comes alive when there is an issue.

We are appealing for volunteers to assist with the roles of Radio Group Admin and Radio coordination. Please let us know if you can help!

Buzzer

We have worked actively this year, alongside other NW Groups, to bring the Buzzer App to the area after its success had been demonstrated in other area, and particularly in Hout Bay.  Buzzer in particular shifts the Focus of Security Interventions from the protection of properties to the broader protection of all individuals, wherever they may be in the area. We currently have 330 people in the area registered on the App and our aim is to have at least 500 members using the App, as well as guests in the area and those who come here to work.

Fire Response

We are well-connected through our Fire Safety Representative on the Committee keeps us very well informed of everything related to fire hazards. We maintain a pump and hose and a small team of volunteers, but we are also fortunate to have the much larger Volunteer Wildfire Services as a tenant at the NCC. We hope that the recent fires have made everyone acutely alert to this hazard in what may turn out to be a long and hot season!!

Community Connector Groups

These groups are small, less formal groups of Neighbours (mostly on WhatsApp) who are linked by an Administrator to a Committee Rep. We believe these small groups, that we can use to quickly check on barking dogs, ask for help, or alert neighbours that we are going away, form the real building blocks of a healthy neighbourhood and we are amazed that more such groups do not exist. We currently have 26 Connector Groups but we would ideally like to see more than 50 in action!

Social media

We have a social media presence on WhatsApp groups and Facebook. Managing this is a huge task and we are very grateful to those who do the constant job of monitoring and res[ponding to the issues that come up. It is worth emphasising that our lifeblood is information, and people being able to report any concern is vital to our success in maintaining safety and security. However, this is entirely dependent on how we take responsibility as a group. We have witnessed the scenario where an innocent and important suspicion can very quickly get turned into a case of libel, or an entirely destructive debate underpinned by prejudice.

We appeal to everyone to be careful not to spread unverified information. (This includes potentially damaging photographs). To be sensitive about language use and to take care in reports to be very clear about the difference between what is verified as fact and what is information has merely been reported but has not been confirmed!

Vulnerable Residents

Our CPNW mandate affirms our role as custodians of both safety and security. This has, in the past, extended to arranging care for a neighbour who was no longer able to care for herself. We are try to develop a database of vulnerable residents so that we can make sure the are OK, particularly in times of crisis. Please let us know if you are aware of anyone who is vulnerable and may need support!

Noordhoek Community Centre (NCC)

An enormous amount of work has gone into the transformation of the NCC from a dilapidated hub that itself was becoming a crime-hazard, to the vibrant centre it now is, and further improvements are being made all the time. Bookings for the NCC venue generate a healthy income each month which covers the cost of running the Centre, pays for maintenance and upgrades and provides important income for the development of security projects.

Key NCC improvement projects this year included paving of the car park and the building of a wheelchair friendly access facility, generously donated by Gareth Findlay.

Motions to Include Danieldale and Willowfield Road neighbourhoods into CPNW

This was proposed after residents of both areas had made repeated requests to join CPNW and it was clear that they would not be included in SMNW. 100% of Danieldale residents have signed up with Deep Blue Security and Residents of both areas have made significant contributions to the purchase and installation of cameras in their areas and to actively supporting CPNW initiatives such as Connector Groups. We share common boundaries and we believe  this extension is a positive step in developing a more collective sense of security in the Valley. The motion were both passed unanimously.

Financial Report

Financially, we remain in a healthy situation with a closing balance as of 31 October 2023 of R124 855.00. Major income is from member contributions and the NCC rental bookings. We have spent in excess of R100 000 on the camera network this year, our second most significant expense has been NCC maintenance and upgrades.

CPNW Committee for 2024

The CPNW Committee for the 2023/24 year was approved as:

• John Parker – Chairman


• Patrick Wright - Vice Chairman


• Sean Moolenschot – Security Providers


• Craig Botha – Rapid Response and Radios


• Karen MacIntyre – Membership, Radios and NCC


• Rob Mousley – Communications and Incidents


• Tessa Oliver - Chapman’s Peak Volunteer Fire Unit


• Lynn Hogan – Community Connectors


• Geoff Young – Bookkeeping and Finance


• Chris Gippert – Cameras and Rapid Response


• Brenda Scott – Secretary

It should be noted that Patrick Wright will be gradually withdrawing from Committee Activities over the course of 2024. Patrick, through his tireless efforts, not only for CPNW but more generally too, has become something of a household name in the area and deservedly so! We are hugely grateful for all the hard work you have put into our community Patrick. This neighbourhood is significantly better because of you!

Appeal for Help

We trust that anyone who is still reading at this point has some odea, not only of the huge amount of work that is taking place in an effort to keep this neighbourhood safe, but also that it really is effective.

It has been good to see some new blood coming into CPNW in the past year but there is always more to do and we have no doubt that, with further help, we really can make our area even safer!

So please consider giving a little bit of your time to ensuring your community’s safety!

We are looking for volunteers for many tasks

• Assistance with camera network support


• Database Management (Membership and Radio


• Radio Controllers and Admin Support


• Development and coordination of Connector Groups


• Social Outreach Programme for vulnerable residents


• Attendance at the monthly Fish Hoek Community Policy Meetings


• Noordhoek Community Centre Support


• Volunteer Firefighters


• K9 search and rescue


• Developing the Response Room


• Intermittent and Spontaneous Patrols


• Community Improvement District (CID)

Let us know how you would like to help, and we will get back to you!!

Alternatively, our Committee Meetings are always open to members, so come along and see how you could get involved.

Finally, we would like to thank everyone for their contribution this year, from our very hard working Committee Members and those supporting them, to those who turned out for patrols, our Connector Group members, everyone who hosts a camera, each one of you who now gets out of bed earlier to put a bin out and every person, who in some small way, is contributing to the safety of this very special Neighbourhood!   May we all have a safe and peaceful 2024!!