Police launch new blue lights policing concept to fight crime

The South African Police Service (SAPS) has launched a brand new “Country in Blue” operational concept that will see police driving with blue lights on after dark, to heighten police visibility across the country. 

The new strategy will also include the use of drone technology policing in crime hotspots to track and trace criminals.

The launch took place on Saturday, 25 September 2021 at the Inanda policing precinct in Durban an area which has recorded the  highest rates of contact crimes such as sexual offences and murder in recent years.

Minister of Police, General Bheki Cele, Deputy Minister of Police, Mr Cassel Mathale, SAPS National Commissioner, General Khehla Sitole, provincial commissioners, Community Policing Forum (CPF) leaders and Traditional leaders attended the event.

The country in blue strategy will see security forces, civil society and government agencies working closely together to fight crime as all operational SAPS vehicles on the road will have their emergency warning, blue lights switched on from sunset to sunrise (18:00 to 06:00). Additional operational vehicles will also be marked to ramp up police presence on the roads. The concept aims to deter all forms of criminality and to mobilise more community patrollers to work closely with the police as “force-multipliers”.

The strategy aims to prevent and combat a host of crimes, including 17 community reported crimes; gender based violence, aggravated robberies such as carjacking,  business and residential robberies, and to ramp up the tracing of wanted suspects and illegal firearms.

Sitole said the Country in Blue Concept was one of several crime combatting strategies to maximise police visibility.

“Because we want to be everywhere all the time, we are going to introduce drone policing in certain areas to ensure that we are visible. This in a bid to normalise and stabilise problematic areas or hot spots such as this one. Our slogan is squeezing the space for criminals through a declaration of a psychological war, for being everywhere all the time. They won’t have anywhere to go,” Sitole said.

Cele has called for better collaboration between communities and the police.

“Policing has changed and this means Police stations are no longer the centre of policing, streets should be centre of policing. More boots and blue lights on the ground not only means  police officers are visible at all times to deter criminality but officers should also be quick to respond to the needs of communities,” Cele said.

The SAPS has called on the public to play an active part in preventing and combatting crime by naming and shaming criminals within communities. This information may be brought to the attention of the SAPS through the MySAPS App which can be downloaded on any smart phone or by calling the Crime Stop number on 0860010111.