Why does Camps Bay need a CID?

Fewer and fewer public resources are being dedicated to Camps Bay. For example, only two Law Enforcement officers are typically allocated by the City to Camps Bay part time, and they are expected to enforce all by-laws, including dealing with vagrants and illegal shacks. Given the increasing pressure of illegal dwellings, this is not sustainable.

SAPS Camps Bay is heavily understaffed, with police numbers decreasing every year. With up to 20,000 visitors per day in summer, our police resources are completely inadequate.

Private security firms such as Bay Response and ADT do their best to assist, but their commercial interest, and duty of care, lies in monitoring and responding to clients’ house alarm systems, not policing public spaces, and their capacity is extremely limited.

Currently, CBCSI (Camps Bay Community Safety Initiative) is the only community-funded initiative that attempts to plug the holes in our community policing needs. You can read more about CBCSI here: https://cbcsi.org/

CBCSI is funded by voluntary contributions of R395 per month. Despite the best efforts of the Trustees, only around 20% of households contribute. As well as being an unsustainable drain on volunteer resources, this budget is nowhere near sufficient to put in place the safety and security and other solutions that we now desperately need. A well-funded, long-term, community-led solution to these and other problems is urgently needed, and a CID is the only realistic solution.