Front, from left, Vanessa Bam, Marida Flack and Madelein Andrews, and back, from left, Christiaan Loots and Steve Chadwick. Absent: Adrian Blaaw Front, from left, Vanessa Bam, Marida Flack and Madelein Andrews, and back, from left, Christiaan Loots and Steve Chadwick. Absent: Adrian Blaaw
Image: Sue Hillyard
When Christiaan Loots became the chairman of the Sir Lowry’s Pass Farm Watch last year, he took charge of a well performing and effective NHW.
Since 2018, the Farm Watch has grown into a community organisation that has been assisting the City of Cape Town authorities in times of fire, flood and unrest, as well as ongoing crime prevention patrols and being the eyes and ears of the South African Police.
As effective it was, it was still not enough for Christiaan.
He had the belief that the Farm Watch must partner with the all the authorities, to put more than eyes and ears on the streets, so that criminals could be caught, arrested and brought to account for their actions.
He turned to his executive committee for their ideas on how collectively they saw the way forward. The goal - to make increased visible policing a reality... consistent and effective.
The first step was to take advantage of the training opportunity offered by the City as auxiliary law enforcement officers. These volunteers play a vital role in supporting law enforcement, by assisting in patrolling, the application of Municipal by laws, directing traffic and providing crucial support during events or emergencies.
Several Farm Watch patrollers responded to this call, and have signed up and have begun the three month training programme. The next step was to organise combined patrols with all law enforcement agencies.
Contact was made with Senior Superintendant Mark Dearden of Law Enforcement, and Farm Watch were heartened by his enthusiastic and helpful response. Within four days, a planning meeting was held with LE, Metro Police and traffic – the role players who were keen to be involved.
A date was set up for the following week. A call for patrollers was posted on several Watch WhatsApp groups in Sir Lowry’s Pass community, and on the evening of the patrol, members from Farm & Village Watch, SAPS and the Community in Blue (CIB) volunteers responded and gathered at Post Office House... a total force of 70 patrollers!
The event began as a combined foot patrol through all areas of the Village and later a vehicle patrol which encompassed the farms, residential estates and in the hot spot crime areas identified by Farm Watch.
I asked the committee what factor contributed to the overwhelming response they received from the community to their call to patrol.
FW Patrol co-coordinator Vanessa Bam responded:“I was not surprised by the response from our Village NHW, as they are extremely active. This enthusiasm extended to the Community in Blue, who are also active and ready to work proactively with Farm Watch.
"They are trained and managed by SAPS, who were ready and keen to join in. The strong collaboration and shared commitment of all involved parties underscore our unified goal of keeping crime at bay. This operation provided Farm Watch with the opportunity to showcase the vastness of the rural areas we patrol.
"We plan to capitalize on this success by conducting a membership drive to recruit new Farm Watch members, specifically our Mounted Patrol section, which now includes cyclists and offroad bikers, as well as the horse team.
"These members will be our eyes in the hard-to-reach rural areas, greatly enhancing our ability to monitor and respond to incidents in these regions. Currently Farm Watch member base is 40, and these individuals work exceptionally hard, not only patrolling, but also handling behind-the-scenes work.
"Rosters are prepared for patrollersand support crew and log crime statistics, Vanessa added.
Since the success of this big patrol, Christiaan has been in discussions with Inspector Kolweni, who leads the Law Enforcement Auxiliary force in the Helderberg area; to go further by introducing a once a week combined patrol.
He believes it is important to have a consistency in patrols, and not to rely on a large one every couple of months. This week a small group of Farm Watch volunteers joined Law Enforcement auxiliary officers, on a vehicle patrol to kick off this weekly commitment.
Farm Watch want to give insight to the authorities where the Hot Spot crime areas are and also those that could potentially become troublesome. It is hoped that these interactions will assist Law Enforcement in learning the road network off the main routes in the rural areas, and what type of vehicles will be required to navigate farm roads and mountain tracks.
Those Farm Watch members who have signed up for the auxiliary officers course, now have a good opportunity to work with qualified officers as part of their training, putting the theory they are learning into practical action.
Going forward, Sir Lowry’s Pass Farm Watch are leading the pack by doing this voluntary security work, which is so vital and helpful to the City security agencies and the South African Police.