Double-up deployment of LEAP officers

Joint media release by the Western Cape Government and the City of Cape Town.

Since 2020, the Western Cape Government and the City of Cape Town have trained, equipped, staffed, managed and deployed more than a thousand Law Enforcement Action Plan (LEAP) officers in Cape Town. The Western Cape Government and the City of Cape Town deployed LEAP members as a force multiplier to the South African Police Service (SAPS) due to the continued failure by the national government to perform its constitutional duty regarding the deployment of police officers to keep the public safe.

“The tough reality is that SAPS in the Western Cape is under-staffed and under-funded. In March 2024 we had 16 424 SAPS officers deployed to our province with 1 757 vacancies, but actually what we need is to dramatically increase SAPS policing numbers by the thousands to make a real difference on our streets and in our communities,” said Western Cape Minister of Police Oversight and Community Safety  Anroux Marais.  

Critical lessons have been learnt since the initial deployment of LEAP and the recently signed cooperation agreement with SAPS allows the LEAP partners to reconsider the deployment patterns and explore different strategies to make Cape Town safer. 

“The Western Cape Safety Plan is based on data and empirical evidence, and testing different approaches to tackling crime. We must be willing to take the lessons that we learn, apply it and approach the complex crime problem from as many angles as we can.” said Minister Marais. 

The Western Cape Department of Police Oversight and Community Safety and the City of Cape Town have therefore initiated a double-up trial redeployment for LEAP to proactively combat the evolving organised crime and extortion syndicates plaguing communities in our crime hotspots.

LEAP will redeploy members to focus on six precincts. The decision was made in consultation with the South African Police Service after a successful trial in Delft in 2023, and guided by the following factors: murder statistics, operational imperatives, and the past twelve quarterly crime stats releases.

This deployment strategy will be assessed and revised after six months.

As a result of this double-up trail redeployment Delft, Khayelitsha, Phillipi East, Nyanga, Mitchells Plain and Gugulethu will receive increased deployments for the trial period.

A Reaction Unit of 120 members will assist in Hanover Park, Manenberg, Atlantis, Kraaifontein, Elsies River and other areas which will not have permanently stationed LEAP officers, to immediately prevent flare-ups and assist SAPS and the City’sMetro Police, especially 

in the areas where gunshot detection technology is deployed.

“The LEAP programme must always remain dynamic in adapting to the needs of the ever-changing war against crime. The changed strategy will deploy more LEAP officers to the worst crime-affected areas for maximum impact against crime, while the Rapid Reaction Unit will ensure an immediate response to a flare-up in any other part of Cape Town,” said Minister Marais.

Alderman JP Smith, Cape Town Mayoral Committee member for Safety and Security, said, “The LEAP programme has had remarkable successes since its launch in 2019, with 595 unlicensed firearms removed from the streets of Cape Town and 34 079 arrests conducted. The need for a targeted approach is required in order to combat a new wave of organised crime, perpetrated by groups that have become increasingly bold and ruthless in their tactics.”

“The City has increasingly been investing in technology as a force multiplier and this will be a critical addition in our efforts to disrupt syndicates and gangs that are turning our communities into war zones,” said Alderman Smith.

“I will also be in constant contact with the provincial SAPS leadership to ensure that we work closely with SAPS during this double-up trial redeployment to ensure that when issues arise they are addressed, and that we find ways to replicate the successes elsewhere,” concluded Minister Marais.