The move is the culmination of two years of planning – the CCID has long been requesting the deployment of additional staff within the CCID boundaries. Last year the City passed a resolution to allow CIDs to contract Law Enforcement officers and the CCID applied to contract four officers.

Prior to this application, the City had restructured its enforcement wing into three departments, namely the Metro Police, Law Enforcement and Traffic services. The previous resolution passed in December 2007 only allowed for the contracting of Metro Police officers, but with the help of Councillor JP Smith, the resolution was amended in October 2008 to include the contracting of Law Enforcement and Traffic officers.

Law Enforcement Chief Richard Bosman has been instrumental in the start up phase of the project. A memorandum of Agreement has been drafted which covers both parties and outlines the service agreement. Law Enforcement officers were chosen as they have more powers than traffic wardens and are primarily by-law specialists – ideally equipped to deal with the problems of a CBD like urinating and/or defecating in public; drinking in public or public inebriation; littering; illegal dumping; informal trading and Parks by-laws. In addition to these powers, they can also issue tickets for non-moving traffic violations.

Under the pilot project, officers will be deployed within the Central City, Epping and Sea Point improvement district areas. These officers will remain under the command and control of Law Enforcement, although their salaries will be funded by the CID in terms of the agreement. They will be tackling key issues identified by the CID and the City and will provide monthly statistics on performance.

According to Tasso Evangelinos, Chief Operations Officer of the CCID, ““The CCID is proud to be part of this ground breaking initiative. The benefits of this system will be very visible from the first day making the Central City as well as the Epping and Sea Point CIDs safer for all.”

Executive Mayor of Cape Town Helen Zille says: “The City welcomes the decision by the City Improvement Districts of Cape Town, Sea Point and Epping to fund additional Law Enforcement personnel. The City of Cape Town has been increasing staff capacity in its policing functions for the past three years, with the introduction of a Directorate Safety and Security Training Academy, and substantial budget increases to address staffing shortages. As part of this initiative to boost capacity, we have also offered the private sector the opportunity to get involved by funding the deployment of extra law enforcement officers over and above our existing force, with powers of arrest and access to City facilities like our new IT crime fighting system. I encourage other CIDs and community organisations to get involved, for the benefit of their members, and to help drive crime out of Cape Town, street by street.”