What does the cid do?  

There is a 24hr Control Room in the CID's office at 59 Palmboom Road, Newlands.  

The Controller monitors local WhatsApp groups, including the CID Emergency group, and the camera networks.  They dispatch Patrollers as required, via radio and closed WhatsApp groups

The Control Room has a dedicated phone and WhatsApp number available to residents -  06860 3443.

All our Control Room staff are employees of Fidelity-ADT, the CID's public safety provider.

The CID has three vehicles manned by armed security officers.  They operate around the clock and are tasked by the CID. With call signs starting with 'C', they are collectively known as the Charlies. 

During the daytime they have patrol patterns and respond to residents' and CID staff concerns. At night they are more 'intel-led', working with AI-generated CCTV alerts.

All security officers are employees of Fidelity-ADT, the CID's public safety provider.

Using the latest AI technology, and partnerships with property owners, the CID has access a large network of CCTV cameras.  

This allows our Community Patrollers to intercept suspicious activity at night.  

The network is maintained and operated by the CID's security team

The security team has identified a number of locations where pedestrians are vulnerable to muggings or there is a risk of vehicle break-ins.  Five priority sites have been equipped with huts for security guards.  All five are manned during the day and three are manned 24/7.

With call signs starting with 'O', the guards  are collectively known as the Oscars.

All guards are employees of Fidelity-ADT, the CID's public safety provider.

This group is primarily a place for users to report threats which require immediate deployment of our security officers.

The group also allows the security team to broadcast crime alerts and advisories, and to report back on recent security issues.

The group is tightly moderated to ensure every message is relevant. There are over 1,000 participants.  

We have a network of LPR cameras, overlooking the main entry points to our suburb.  

They are monitored and managed by the security team.  

They alert when known suspect vehicles enter our area and are linked to over 2,000 LPR cameras across Cape Town.  This wider network supports SAPS in making dozens of arrests every month.

There are more than 15 'micro' WhatsApp security groups in our part of Newlands.  

They are moderated and maintained by residents of the streets they serve.  

The CID maintains a watching brief on the majority of these groups. 

It takes many moving parts to keep a suburb safe. Newlands CID is a Member of the Community Police Forums in both Rondebosch and Claremont.  We participate in crime operations and feedback meetings weekly and monthly.  This is where valuable relationships are built with other Neighbourhood Watches, Law Enforcement, Metro Police, Private Security companies, Table Mountain National Park, etc.

Our Public Safety provider is Fidelity-ADT. A majority of our property owners contract with 'ADT' for their private Armed Response, but our patrollers operate independently of that service.  The CID is all about securing public space for the benefit of all.

F-ADT provides our mobile patrollers, static guards and control room staff.

Although F-ADT is their employer, the CID is wholly responsible for the tasking of contracted F-ADT staff. 

Two days each week, a 2-man team works through the CID's 100 streets collecting litter and clearing overflowing bins.

They work out of the City yard behind our office in 59 Palmboom Road.  

Because of the number of homeless people on the streets, our litter pickers cannot leave tied-up bags for more than a few hours before they are torn open.  So they drop digital pins wherever they leave a full bag and a contractor collects them before the end of the day.  

Three days a week, the CID maintenance team are working in our public spaces.

One day is typically spent in the large parks (Paradise Park & Papenboom Meadow) and another in the 'small' parks (Kent Road Park, Pinewood Park, Palmboom Park).

Their third day is usually dedicated to projects in the green belt, our M3 boundary and other projects such as clearing undergrowth from pavements, cleaning graffiti. 

Two of our most well-loved parks, Paradise Park and Palmboom Park, are especially popular with carers of very young children. 

In the spirit of the City's 'Park Buddy' scheme, both of these parks are watched over by Park Wardens.  

Their job is to keep their park clear of litter, assist park users, manage the irrigation and be 'eyes and ears' for the park community.  

They are in contact with the Security Team if assistance is needed. 

Newlands is full of rivers and streams and none pops its head up so often as the Liesbeek River.  Friends of the Liesbeek do great work, largely unheralded and perennially underfunded.   

They need and deserve consistent support to keep our river the way we would all like it to be.

The CID makes a small monthly contribution to  the Friends of Liesbeek.

U-Turn specialises in helping homeless people get off the streets and into productive working lives.  Participants may have to navigate homelessness, hopelessness, addiction and many other challenges.

Phase 3 of the U-Turn programme is called 'Work-Readiness' which involves getting participants ready for the workplace.  

As part of our Social Responsibility portfolio, the CID employs a team of four U-Turn 'Champions' every week.  This provides meaningful job opportunities, in a managed environment, to ready particpants for full-time jobs.  

It is not just by chance that Newlands has such a great sense of community! 

 Following the example of the Newlands Residents' Association, the CID encourages and supports community events.

Regular events include the Duck Races for children on the canal before the winter rains dry up, Kids' Christmas market in Paradise Park, Annual Clean up, Mandela Day - and so on.   

Newlands is blessed with incredible green spaces and our environment team can give time and energy to parks that the City is not able to.  However, that often means starting projects that we cannot complete on our own.

We have a very productive relationship with the City's department of 'Rec. & Parks' - more important in Newlands than perhaps any other suburb.  They are invariably short of resources but we get far more done in our area than most of our neighbours. If we clear overgrown corners, our colleagues send a truck to collect the cuttings.  When we propose planting saplings in an open space, the City nursery delivers free trees for us to plant.  The arrangement works for both parties and Rec & Parks collaborate generously and quickly. 

If you want to make the City to listen to you, the best method is to get your project or complaint considered by one of their formal structures.  

The CID is not a de facto member of the Council, but one of our team volunteers their services to the Ward 59 Committee.   

All matters tabled at the Ward Committee are minuted and have to be attended to by the Councillor.  

The CID's maintenance team tackles a wide variety of tasks but there are some things it cannot do.  

We might not have the skills or tools, we might not be able to take on the legal liability or it might be something that the City simply should be taking responsibility for.

For these tasks, we use the City's online Service Request function.  We submit detailed reports of the problem and follow up if action is not taken.

When a civic organisation like the CID is considered to have enough support, it can be recognised as a Commenting Body by provincial and municipal Heritage authorities. The CID has 'inherited' commenting body status from the Newlands Residents' Association.

Commenting Bodies get advance sight of planning applications with heritage implications, giving our volunteer architects a chance to scrutinise them before they are submitted to council.  

This is an essential part of conserving our many heritage resources and the character of Newlands in general.