Crime displacement a risk to SANDF/SAPS joint-operations

The Minister of Community Safety, Albert Fritz, is calling for greater integration between the SAPS, law enforcement, SANParks and the SANDF on intelligence gathering and sharing to prevent crime displacement.

Crime displacement is the relocation of crime or criminals as a result of police crime-prevention efforts. Criminologists explain that there are six types of crime displacement. These include:

1.Temporal displacement: crimes occur at different times of the day;

2.Tactical displacement: offenders adopt a different modus operandi;

3.Target displacement: criminals select new targets;

4.Type of crime displacement: offenders choose a new crime to commit;

5.Spatial displacement: offenders commit crimes in new locations; and

6.Perpetrator displacement: the replacement of apprehended criminals by new ones.

Minister Fritz said, “Each of these forms of displacement is a risk to the current operations on the ground. There have already been reports of spatial displacement to the CBD and the hinterlands. Just yesterday, a Ukrainian tourist was robbed and murdered in Chapman’s Peak. There have been further reports of known gangsters from the Elsies River community being arrested upon moving their operations to Hermanus. I call on the SAPS and SANParks to make use of the state-of-the-art Transport Management Centre and the ShotSpotter technologies to anticipate and prevent further crime related to displacement.”

“I condemn in the strongest terms the murder of the Ukrainian tourist yesterday in Chapman’s peak. I wish his family my deepest condolences during this difficult time and call on the police to urgently apprehend each criminal involved in the attack. We cannot allow crime to threaten the wellbeing of people, tourism and the economy. I want to make it clear that Cape Town remains open for business and tourism.”

Minister Fritz further added, “Next week I will be meeting with the safety stakeholders of each municipality in the province to strategise on how we can further safeguard the Western Cape. I will be raising the pertinent issue of crime displacement and the need for collective intelligence gathering and sharing.”

Under the leadership of Minister Albert Fritz, the Department of Community Safety will continue to use every tool at its disposal to safeguard the Western Cape.