Crime prevention initiatives and partnerships

A number of crime prevention initiatives and partnerships have been developed in order to reduce crime levels in the Durban Metropolitan Area (DMA).

The Durban City Police provides the following services:

• Mounted Horse Patrols (Beachfront)
• Closed Circuit T.V. (Beachfront & CBD)
• Plainclothes Police Officers (Beachfront & CBD)
• "Bobby on the Beat" uniformed Foot Patrol (Beachfront, CBD, Chatsworth & Phoenix)
• Motorized Police Patrol - rapid response, land rover & motor cycle units (Metro)
• Police Dog Units (Metro) 
• Street Child Unit Patrols - affiliated to the KwaZulu Natal Street Children's Forum
• Roadblocks carried out by the Special Patrol Group using mobile Charge Offices, for both general crime prevention purposes and "drunk driving" prosecutions.

Partnerships include:

• The City Council'sMayoral Award for Excellence - Crime Prevention  
• Beachfront Business Committee - comprising police, beachfront hotels, restaurants, formal & informal traders
• Beachfront Consortium - a Council-initiated programme that deals with advertising and marketing the beachfront
• Joint Operational Committee - deals with resources and manpower issues and consists of City Police, media, South African Police Service, formal & informal traders, hotels, and other relevant council departments

In addition to these initiatives, the South African Police Services provides a number of crime prevention strategies and actions that the individual can be involved with.

A number of general planning strategies, aimed at addressing the inequalities of the city structure and which are crucial for effective crime prevention, have been formulated. These include spatial integration, multi-functional use, higher density living, and a passenger transport plan. All of these will enable users to identify more closely with the environments in which they live and work. Planning strategies which are being undertaken in the DMA include the Metro Integrated Development Framework (IDF), Spatial Development Framework (SDF), Integrated Development Plans (IDP's), RDP Urban Renewal Projects, Local IDF's and a Passenger Transport Plan for the Durban Metropolitan Council.

The privatisation of security is a response to the inability of the South African Police Services to deal with all the crime in the DMA. People are paying private companies to provide security in the form of alarms with armed response. This is a country-wide phenomenon and has shifted responsibility for dealing with crime into the private sector. Associated with the privatisation of security is the closing off of residential areas through the development of secure townhouse complexes and in some cases entire suburbs are fenced. Neighbourhood Watches (local resident patrols) are also on the increase.

People are also moving towards the use of shopping malls, which are privately owned and better secured, and private recreational facilities which have some form of restricted access and security. These measures are generally limited to middle and upper income people who can afford to pay for these extra security measures.

Although Durban has some of the highest levels of violence and crime in South Africa, it is also a centre that pioneered peace pacts and development negotiation. It has thus gained experience and a growing ethos of development negotiation and partnership which can be built on. Examples of this include the Cato Manor Development Forum, the Inanda Development Forum and the environmental negotiation forum for the Southern Industrial Basin. Prior to the 1999 national elections, a peace pact was signed by the ANC and IFP to advance peace in the province.