Hermanus Public Protection (HPP), in partnership with Fidelity ADT, played a key role in several arrests last month. Swift action and vigilance from HPP’s ground teams and CCTV operators successfully resolved numerous incidents, including theft, intoxication and disorderly conduct.
Marius Boshoff, Hermanus Branch Manager for Fidelity ADT, said a Fidelity Special Response Unit officer, on a routine patrol on 15 August, came across a crowd gathered around a pedestrian knocked down by a vehicle. “He soon established that the driver was under the influence of alcohol and detained him until the police arrived on scene.
“The HPP Control Room contacted an ambulance for the injured pedestrian, and police and traffic officers were dispatched to the scene.”
The driver, taken to hospital too for blood tests, was arrested for driving under the influence.
On the same day HPP CCTV operators spotted a known criminal trailing two drunken males in the CBD. The two removed a stop sign pole and carried it off. Police, alerted, arrested them for malicious damage to property.
Eagle-eyed HPP CCTV operators also assisted with the arrest of two suspects for theft from a motor vehicle. Two officers spotted the two loitering near a vehicle parked in the industrial area and after noticing them tampering with the vehicle, the officers alerted the police. Boshoff said the officers intervened. “Initially, no stolen items were found on the suspects. However, CCTV footage revealed they had discarded a bag on being approached. It was found nearby and contained a firefighter first-aid kit, leading to their arrest for theft from a motor vehicle.”
HPP officers assisted in numerous other arrests, including of three men for allegedly robbing a woman of her handbag in Westcliff, a man for shoplifting in the CBD and three men for drunkenness and disorderly conduct. “We are incredibly proud of our HPP members,” Boshoff said, “and I thank them for their hard work and effort.”
