WATCH: RNW members go on a visibility patrol
The gathering was also to show support to one of their members who recently lost his father.
Members of the Roodekrans Neighbourhood Watch (RNW) gathered at their operations (ops) room and convoyed with their vehicles flashing orange lights to four different stops around the area on Saturday, 15 June, in a bid to promote visibility.
Explaining the purpose of the gathering was Martin Lombard, the head of patrollers, who said, “Tonight we have gathered just to show the community that the RNW patrollers are active and strong. We are gathered here to show the criminals that we know what we are doing. Our aim is to stop these criminals from breaking into houses and to curb crime as a whole.”
The gathering was also to show support to one of their members who recently lost his father.
“One of our special ops patrollers lost his dad recently. Our responder attended to the scene and did 30 minutes of Cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) until medical assistance arrived but unfortunately it was too late. This is our way of showing him that we care about him and his family, we are all one family in this community,” added Lombard.
RNW is structured in a way that it has three different units – the normal patrollers who are said to be the eyes and ears on the ground, responders and special patrollers.
“Normal patrollers are the people that have retired, are at home and drive around one or two hours a day and call in about broken water pipes and street lights that don’t work. The second group are responders, those people have been trained to manage motor vehicle accidents as well as outside crime scenes and they are generally on a standby roster. Then there is a special group of patrollers, who are trained to be tactical first aiders and can respond to any medical or crime scene. They work hand in hand with security companies and the police to apprehend suspects,” he said.
The patrollers conducted a stand-off in four different places in the area, all of which are said to be high crime areas. Before they dispersed back into the areas they patrol, they closed everything off with a prayer.
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One of the members, Melanie Walker, said she has been part of the Neighbourhood Watch since it started and she enjoys every single minute of it.
“I used to do trauma counselling when I started. I used to go out and talk to people after armed robberies or any other incidents. I chose to be part of the RNW because I love assisting people. I wanted to be part of the people that make changes in our area,” Melanie added.
RNW has an Operations Room (Ops Room) that runs 24/ 7 and is all about assisting the community. The Ops Room is said to be the indispensable heart of the operation, which has grown from strength to strength.
The Ops Room’s primary function is and continues to be the combating of crime and the co-ordination of all operations within the Roodekrans Neighbourhood Watch from a central point.
Any resident who wants to contact the ops room, can do so at any time of the day on 081 043 9488.
