Last night, nearly 100 bullets were discharged from 20 locations within a one-kilometre radius in Manenberg.
JP Smith, Cape Town’s Mayco member for Safety and Security, says the South African Police Service deployed their Anti-Gang Unit with four vehicles and 10 members.
This team was accompanied by 11 of the City’s LEAP vehicles, as well as 40 members, and another two vehicles and five members of the Metro Police.
He says the City’s Shotspotter system outlined the extent of the bullets fired.
‘With our ISR ready to be launched in the coming weeks, our plane could be on the other side of the city and we can instantly focus on any area, zoom right in, ‘count the freckles on the shooter’s cheek’. ‘Then follow him back to his hideout at home, even if he changes clothes along the way.’
According to the City, the information, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) technology will enhance information gathering in the fight against poaching, land invasions, vegetation fires, illegal street racing, gang incidents and hijacked or stolen vehicles.
The advanced aerial surveillance technology, commonly referred to as ‘Eye in the Sky’, is a two-seater fixed-wing aircraft fitted with state-of-the-art cameras that the Safety and Security Directorate will deploy to provide officers with situational awareness and aerial imagery when conducting various enforcement operations.
‘South Africa desperately needs to up the game against such urban terrorism. We need credible, detailed information we can rely on, not people pointing us in the opposite direction,’ says Smith.
‘Sometimes a community is too scared to talk out. Sometimes they simply keep quiet as they need to ‘protect their own’.’
