North Durban POC

As an established area, with active Community Policing Forums (CPF), North Durban was chosen as the geographical area to undertake our, Community Safety & Security led, Proof of Concept.

This POC would need to show potential corporate investors that the idea of a community driven, replicable, model for sustainable community safety was viable and that we, as GTF, could implement it.

  • In July 2021 KZN experienced one of the highest levels of unrest seen since 19491. This, in conjunction with mass looting and destruction of property, saw KZN sustain costs upwards of R20bn to its economy. The Foundation was formed to attempt to address the root causes of the violence and the uplift the wider community’s ability to respond to disasters and safety/security related incidents.

    To facilitate measurable, time-based, outcomes the decision was taken to limit the POC scope to within the Community Safety and Security Department with input from the Humanitarian Aid Department.

  • The POC was operationally instituted in 1 Apr 2022 to run through to the 31 Aug 2022 where there will be a complete POC retrospective conducted in conjunction with full funders briefings occurring prior to the continuation decision being made on the Foundation’s next steps.

    The POC seeks to establish the mechanisms for the Foundation to move forward with, coupled with measurable outcomes which it will take forward.

    One of the elements of the POC is going to seek to implement a wider area based estate management solution built on an Artificial Intelligence (AI) backend which will aim to introduce a known community member analytics based routine in which we will aim to identify the “unknowns” within the area and ensure that any suspicious activity is dealt with in a coordinated manner.

  • The key area of success, from our perspective, within the POC is the engagement of the community.

    To facilitate this involvement, GTF has aligned itself with the Community Policing Forums within the are. The reasoning behind this decision was due to the fact that through the SAPS Act 68 of 1995, legislated that Community Police Forums (And their Neighbourhood Watches) as the only recognised consultative forum designed to permit communities to make their policing concerns known to the police.

    The July 2021 unrest re-wrote the role of the CPF within the remit of a community’s safety and security.

    Our vision sees a community prepared, capable and coordinated in providing assistance to the traditional security systems (SAPS/Private Security/etc.).

    • Technology Implementation

    • Community Buy-In

    • Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) Planning

    • Drone Operations

    • Community Upskilling

    • Establish GTF

      • NPC & PBO Registered

    • Establish Command & Coordination HQ

      • 24hr operational ability with zero impact from Load Shedding

    • Establish Drone Department

      • Airspace agreements with the South African Civil Aviation Authority (SACAA)

      • SAPS flight authorisation

    • Establish Memorandum of Operations (MOU)

      • Local CPFs

      • Prominent area based private security providers

      • SAPS/Metro Police

    • Establish SNPR/CCTV Network

    • Establish links with prominent Humanitarian Aid Providers

    • Provide medical training to community members

WHAT WE HAVE NOW:

  • Multiple disparate Neighbourhood Watch organisations with no clear lines of communication between them

  • Ad hoc WhatsApp chats

  • Independent Neighbourhood Watch (NHW) teams doing a voluntary tasks, relatively unassisted

  • Failing municipal services

WHAT WE WILL HAVE:

  • A sustainable, financially strong entity to help coordinate the safety and security of the North Durban area

  • A formally run foundation with funded staff to deal with queries from the community

  • A Headquarters and Coordination Centre with links to SAPS, Local Government, Municipality and Security Companies

  • Access to multiple top of the range drones covering the area.

  • Multiple vehicle license plate (SNPR) cameras

  • Multiple monitored CCTV cameras in and around the precinct

  • Emergency assistance number for the community

  • Technology to assist residents, CPF, NHW, SAPS, Metro Polices, EMS and Security teams in the fulfillment of their respective roles

How can you get involved?

  • As with any endeavour of this magnitude, donations and funding are the key elements to enabling the foundation to continue its work.

    With the added benefit of being a registered PBO with SARS, we have the ability to produce Section 18A certificates for any donations we receive (On request).

    If you would like to donate, please find out more HERE.

  • We cannot do this alone, and we would love to have members of the community with us when we are out implementing initiatives and running projects in our community.

    If you are interested in volunteering within any of the departments, please find links to the interest forms HERE.

  • With one of our focus areas being the introduction of technological based solutions into the area with the vision of a wider managed estate scenario, it is critical that the information of legitimate community members is captured into our database.

    This will ensure that the “knowns”, being the community members, are distinguishable from the “unknowns” within the area and thus enabling the AI to establish baseline activity within the area.

    If you would like to be registered on the community database, please find the link to the documentation and database forms HERE.

 
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