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By Crime Watch | 2024-04-29
Neighbourhood Watch schemes can go a long way in bringing crime under control in communities.
This is one of the several strategies that the Royal Eswatini Police Service encourages communities to engage in a bid to fight crime as it displays signs of peaking relentlessly.
In several communities, the police service has assisted residents to set up neighbourhood watch schemes which encourage residents to come together to ensure that their neighbourhoods are safe and secure.
Neighbourhood schemes heavily rely on communities exercising vigilance, reporting of criminal or any suspicious activities. These schemes are closely aligned with community policing, which is an extension of the police service in its fight against crime.
Speaking recently during a crime prevention campaign held at KaMethula Inkhundla, acting National Commissioner Lydia Sijabulisiwe Dlamini said it had been noted that the neighbourhood watch schemes were effective and can go a long way in ensuring that crime was brought under control in the country.
This can be attributed to that communities take a leading role and lookout for criminal elements that can disturb peace in their areas and address such threats with promptness.
She urged members of the public to remain vigilant at all times as vigilance was important when dealing with criminal elements. She further advised that all residents should practice Honest-citizen habits which involves desisting from buying/dealing in stolen property, and instead, reporting those selling items of dubious origin.
Neighbourhood watch schemes encourage communities to embrace their role in the elimination of crime in their areas and ensuring that their environments were safe to live in. Neighbourhood watch schemes are created as per the needs of that community as the residents are encouraged to conduct night patrols around their area in groups and engage in other activities that will support their crime-fighting initiatives.
Neighbourhood schemes also encourage neighbourliness and serve as each other’s ‘brother’s keeper’ as they work together towards eradicating crime in their communities.
It is the prerogative of every citizen or resident of the country to report crime or any suspicious activity they witness and this can assist in alleviating crime. To effectively suppress crime in the country, the police service requires total support and collaboration from all stakeholders. The community has a major role to play in this regard as they are not only affected, but they also interact with the criminals as they form part of the community.
It is the responsibility of every law-abiding citizen to report crime and further ensure that the country is a safe place for everyone to live in. Creating a safe environment is not only duty of the REPS, but it is also an obligation for all residents of the Kingdom, whether young or old hence, the national adage ‘Nawe Uliphoyisa’.
Interventions
The police service continue to strengthen its mechanisms in a bid to clamp down on crime. This is done through, among other interventions, intensive public sensitisation through community safety officers who conduct public capacitation in communities, schools, faith-based forums, including establishing and training community police personnel.
The REPS also focuses on young people, both in and out of school, through the establishment of schools’ anti-crime clubs that aim to include the youth in crime prevention initiatives. These strategies enhance the police service efforts which include rolling out targeted operations in crime and road traffic hot-spot areas, as well as conducting joint operations in tandem with other security agencies.
It is vitally important that communities, parents and leadership structures play a leading role in protecting the youth and ensure that they did not engage in destructive behaviour.
The youth, who are the future generation, are also expected to play their part through reporting criminal activities among their peers so that proper action can be taken. The police service always treats information proffered to them with the highest level of confidentiality and informants are guaranteed anonymity.
The REPS is always seeking to partner and cooperate with communities in the fight against crime as per the organisation’s operational theme for the year, ‘Combating Crime and Road Traffic Accidents Through Robust Police Action In Partnership with the Public’.
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