The crime statistics for the first quarter for 2023-’24 was released by the police earlier this month and even though no murders or attempted murders had been reported between the period 1 April to 30 June in the Bothasig policing precinct which services Edgemead, the local neighbourhood watch is of the opinion that the statistics “paint a bleak picture”.
“The national crime statistics paint a bleak picture and residents of Edgemead need to be aware that we no longer live in that quaint, low- crime suburb we used to.
“Bothasig police has issued an alert about the spike of reported cybercrime, including scammers purporting to be from your bank and manipulating people into sharing bank details. These scammers are very convincing, and the police have urged residents who receive calls from their bank reporting suspicious transactions on their bank accounts to suspend the call immediately and to contact their bank’s fraud line to report the incident,” said Mark Richards, spokesperson for the Edgemead Neighbourhood Watch.
Richards said as a neighbourhood watch their biggest concerns, however, are burglaries of which 42 cases were reported during the three-month period, robberies of which 11 cases had been reported, theft of motor vehicles of which four cases had been reported and assaults of which 22 cases had been reported.
“The robberies or home invasions and assaults hold the very real potential of contact crimes with possible fatal consequences.
“One of our recent home invasions saw youngsters being held at knifepoint whilst the criminals went about their business.
“One can only imagine the immense trauma suffered by these young folk and their parents. It is common knowledge that the police’s resources and manpower are being depleted year on year and as this continues so will crime rise exponentially.
“The acknowledgment from the police’s top management that the police are unable to fulfil its mandate of protecting our citizens means that more reliance will be placed on safety organisations like neighbourhood watches.
“Our patrollers are cognisant of this and are pulling out all the stops by showing as much visibility as we possibly can and our year-to-date patrolling hours as at end July was 6 168 hours, clocked by 81 active patrollers,” said Richards.
Edgemead applying for CID
Edgemead is also in the process of applying to become a Community Improvement District (CID) and among a host of other initiatives, crime fighting will figure largely once implemented, he said.
According to Richards based on their shared information from surrounding neighbourhood watches, crime in Edgemead is in line with what their suburbs are experiencing.
