The City has 96 School Resource Officers (SROs), deployed at 45 schools to assist with scholar safety, crime prevention and by-law enforcement in the areas around schools.
Extra-curricular programmes have become part and parcel of the SRO project, with numerous successes like the Voorbrug Hindle Cadet programme in Delft; marching bands and even involvement with a primary school choir in Heideveld.
A trio of SROs has zeroed in on athletics to help keep children positively engaged and away from at-risk behaviours.
Their exploits resulted in the first-ever SRO initiated fun run on Women’s Day, at the Zeekoevlei Nature Reserve, where 170 learners from 17 schools lined up for the six-kilometre run.
The SROs were supported by the City’s Disaster Risk Management Centre and the provincial government’s Safe Schools programme.
Participating High schools were: Phoenix (Manenberg), Oscar Mpetha (Nyanga), Nelson Mandela (Crossroads), Heideveld, Bonteheuwel, Modderdam (Bonteheuwel), Crystal (Hanover Park), Fairmount (Parkwood), Cedar (Mitchells Plain), Tafelsig, Heathfield and Lavender Hill.
Primary school participants were Parkwood, Prince George, Levana and Hillwood (all in Lavender Hill), and Red River in Manenberg.
‘Our School Resource Officers truly embody the softer side of Law Enforcement, which is critical to repairing the social fabric that often influences law and order. They do the hard work when it is needed, but they’ve also given so many young people positive outlets and opportunities to change their stories, and set them on a different path.
‘The SROs started as a pilot project partnership with the provincial education department in 2012, with just six schools. Two years ago, we had three dozen officers assigned to the project. This year, the number is at 108, and deployment has increased to 54 schools – a sign of our ongoing commitment to the safety of learners in some of our most high-risk areas,’ said Mayoral Committee Member for Safety and Security, Alderman JP Smith.
