Ten things you can do to free the Cops time

I reckon it’s a well known fact that the police in South Africa is under – staffed. Here is a list of ten things that you can do to ease their time up.

1. Make way for the police when they have their sirens going and lights flashing. As someone who has been in police cars a few times en – route to an emergency, I find it strange how often people just will not move over for a police vehicle with both a siren and lights. Please remember it might be your house or the house of a family member that they are on their way to. Please make way!
2. Try to diffuse stressful situations. It is very easy for a simple situation to get out of hand, especially when liquor is involved. If you find yourself in such a situation, don’t make the cops life difficult. They will not tolerate it and your behavior might score you a night in the slammer. If the situation has nothing to do with you, stand far away or leave the scene (if you are not an eye witness) so as to make the situation less stressful.
3. When passing the scene of a motor vehicle accident, keep your eye on the road and pass swiftly and safely. A lot of secondary accidents are caused by motorists looking at the accident scene instead of keeping their eyes on the road where it should be. Going slowly to look at the accident also backs up the traffic.
4. Domestic crimes waste a huge amount of cops’ time. These are things like husbands fighting with wives, music being played loud, being aggressive towards others and so forth. By keeping a cool demeanor and taking care of yourself and your neighborhood, you can save a lot of calls to cops.
5. Don’t make that call. Before you make a phone call that will require the police to come to your house or location, think carefully if it is really needed. A simple scenario would be the theft of an item from your yard, for instance a bicycle. If there is no evidence on the scene that the police can use to catch the culprit, it might be easier to just go into the police station and open a docket. (And it will probably be quicker too!).
6. Be aware of what is going on around you. If you prevent a crime by being observant, you have probably just saved at least an hour of police time.
7. Give assistance if you can. Yes, if you are a medic or a doctor, or even if you just have a medical available when one is needed, you might be making the cops’ job much easier. When there is a situation where the police are involved, always give a thought to what you can do to make things easier for them.
8. Don’t look the other way. If you have information that the police can use, hand it over. If you notice suspicious activity, let the police know. Remember that stopping a crime takes far less time than solving a crime and catching a criminal.
9. Become involved in neighborhood watch. The more you patrol your area and act like the eyes and ears of the police, the more they can concentrate their powers where it is really needed. Police know about formal neighborhood watch schemes and CPF, and work closely with these people. By being part of these, the police will get to know you and trust you, and will therefore respond better when you make a call.
10. Make use of an alternative. If you can afford it, try to have your alarm linked to a private security firm. Granted they are not always there immediately, but quite often they can be there before the police. They can make arrests, protect you and your property and they too work closely with the police.

Hopefully you can make use of some of these tips at some time, and take a bit of stress of the police force!

Stay safe
LeonDude