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Crime and Grime City

NCJ Number
185867
Journal
Siyaya! Issue: 5 Dated: Winter 1999 Pages: 38-43
Author(s)
Celean Jacobson
Editor(s)
Janine Rauch
Date Published
1999
Length
6 pages
Annotation
The slum at the heart of Johannesburg, South Africa, is the target of a new crime prevention model involving a metropolitan police force to complement the South African Police Service.
Abstract
Hillbrow, the slum in the inner city of Johannesburg, has the highest murder rate in the world. Criminals escape into dark high rise buildings and pedestrians are easy targets on congested streets. Businesses have fled the city center for safer office parks in the north, and years of rent boycotts have left landlords desperate and many have abandoned their buildings or handed them over to corrupt management companies. Johannesburg is likely to be among the first cities to start municipal policing. The plan is for visible policing, such as foot and vehicle patrols, and enforcement of laws and traffic regulations. Johannesburg will be used as a model by the national government to investigate ways of dealing with crime at the local level. 11 photographs