Patrolling the hood

It's another dark, and this time rather stormy, night. 20:05 and I pull myself off the comfortable couch and get on my walking shoes and some warm clothes - it's patrol time. I meet up with 3 other volunteers from my community and together we brave the wind, walking around our neighbourhood for an hour.

Every Tuesday I patrol Muizenberg with friends from the Muizenberg Community Safety Initiative. There are usually 4 of us guys, and sometimes Jane joins us. We all wear hi-vis vests with the MCSI logo on them, and one of us carries a radio - our only defense against the night. Our job is to patrol the neighbourhood, and to report any suspicious activity. It is a passive patrol and we will never engage with "trouble", but rather call it in to the local security company, who can in turn call the police. So far we've only uncovered one daring raid on the metal of the railway tracks for scrap. Or so we thought. Turned out is was just a late night gang repairing the railway line.

We only patrol for an hour, but similar patrols go out every other weekday, and we take random routes. Perhaps not stopping crime, but hopefully making the streets a little safer and ideally easier for other citizens to take back.

More on why I'm doing this and a little bit about the others who walk with me next time. Maybe even a photo...