Throughout the first quarter of the year, 599 incidents were reported to our Emergency Dispatch Centre, an average of just under 200 a month. The top three types of incidents were housebreakings, theft, and theft of copper, with the main areas victim to trio crimes being Avoca, Effingham and Kenville.
We’ve seen some great successes this year so far, through key arrests of three armed gangs:
- A gang of four car-thieving suspects were arrested in February. The suspects were believed to have been involved in numerous vehicle thefts in the Durban, Umdloti and Ballito areas.
- Four wanted, highly dangerous armed robbers were killed during a shoot-out with Marshall members in March, leading to a significant reduction in crime.
- A gang of armed robbers wanted for terrorising residents across the greater Durban North, Avoca and Phoenix areas through multiple hijackings and house robberies were arrested following a short high speed chase.
Main crime trends that arose during this period was vehicle related crimes, especially hijackings. There was also a period during February and March where joggers out on their runs were being held up.