It is an indisputable fact that crime is seriously under reported by the SAPS.<\/p>\n
Police flatly refuse to supply crime statistics, because the prevalence of crime, is so abundant, it actually makes the SAPS look incapable of reducing crime.<\/p>\n
The SAPS often also categorizes crimes to look less serious, like categorizing a farm attack as a house robbery for instance.<\/p>\n
Middelburg will only be able to fight the war against crime, if all crimes are exposed.<\/p>\n
A small thing like a bike stolen out of a yard, can actually reveal a crime tendency in that particular suburb, and lead to residents being more alert.<\/p>\n
As little as ten years ago, police were print media’s top informants, and the SAPS communication divisions, were actually obliged to notify the press of crimes as they were reported.<\/p>\n
Those days are long gone. Presently the SAPS only report successes, while merely providing the Middelburg Observer with information, if and when the paper asks.<\/p>\n
The result is as stated above – that the prevalence of crime is under reported, and thereby disarming residents of the Town of the Year to take make informed security decisions for them and their families.<\/p>\n
If you are a victim of crime, speak out.<\/p>\n
Phone the Middelburg Observer editorial team on 013 243 1434, SMS a brief account and contact details to 072 248 3855, or e-mail the team on tobie@mobserver.co.za<\/a>, digital@mobserver.co.za<\/a>, daleen@mobserver.co.za<\/a>, jana@mobserver.co.za<\/a>, gerhard@mobserver.co.za <\/a>or naledi@mobserver.co.za<\/a>.<\/p>\n Together we can fight back, and drive criminals out of town, with or without the police.<\/p>\n Police officers sleep on duty<\/a><\/p>\n Update: Another scandal rocks Middelburg SAPS<\/a><\/p>\n Send a message to our SMS line 37 940 or add us onto Facebook<\/a> and Twitter<\/a> @Mobserv<\/a> to receive your free daily news updates.<\/p>\n Also check out our Video\u2019s<\/a> on Youtube<\/a> daily!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The Middelburg Observer is appealing to all its readers to come forward with information on crimes committed in town, even the petty ones that victims don’t report to the police.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2844,"featured_media":34933,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"hasGravity":false,"cxt_article_byline":"Gerhard Rheeder","cxt_disable_google_ads":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2885,7,2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-34930","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-crime-news","category-local-news","category-news-headlines"],"category_labels":{"Category":"News","SubCategory":"Crime News"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/develop.citizen.co.za\/middelburg-observer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34930","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/develop.citizen.co.za\/middelburg-observer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/develop.citizen.co.za\/middelburg-observer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/develop.citizen.co.za\/middelburg-observer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2844"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/develop.citizen.co.za\/middelburg-observer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34930"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/develop.citizen.co.za\/middelburg-observer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34930\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/develop.citizen.co.za\/middelburg-observer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/34933"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/develop.citizen.co.za\/middelburg-observer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34930"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/develop.citizen.co.za\/middelburg-observer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34930"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/develop.citizen.co.za\/middelburg-observer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34930"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}