Police World Edition 2 2013

To the Moon and Back Bruce Lister, a member from Hertfordshire branch, and fellow officer Jackie Reynolds decided to extend their holiday at Timour Hall - the IPA house owned by Section South Africa.

Interested in IPA Houses around the world? Visit: www.ipa- iac.org/content.php? pageId=2

W e travelled to South Africa in was spent on Safari in and around the Kruger National Park. We were lucky enough to see the ‘Big Five’ and also had a close encounter with a Black Mamba – one of the deadliest and most aggressive snakes in the world - when it attacked our vehicle. In Cape Town we met up with Jo Huysamen and her father Deon who, together with Deon’s wife, run the Cape Town branch at their HQ, Timour Hall. After an extensive tour of their historic building and facilities Jo announced that she had planned a day out for us with two local police officers in two days’ time. This left us a couple of days to visit Boulder beach and its famous penguins, Cape Point and the Cape of Good Hope. We also managed a hike across Table Mountain, where Jackie agreed to my marriage proposal. The next morning we were collected from our hotel by Jenkins and Peregrino, officers from the Ghost Squad - which is part of South Africa’s traffic department. The Ghost Squad consists of 30 specially picked officers using unmarked high performance vehicles for traffic and crime enforcement in the Western Cape region. The Squad certainly have their work cut out, with only 20% of vehicles having insurance. There is currently no legal requirement for car insurance or MOTs in South Africa. Their road-death rate is enormous, having more than our annual fatalities in just one month. Our daytime tour continued as we were shown an automatic number plate recognition (ANPR) car. The use of this technology is fairly new in South Africa but growing. We also visited the Western Cape traffic control room before moving on to Nyanga (or Xhosa) which October 2012 arriving in Nelspruit via Johannesburg. Our first week

translates as ‘The Moon’. Nyanga is a huge township on the outskirts of the city with a population of over a million. It is quite an intimidating place due to its reputation and notoriously high murder rate. On the previous afternoon, following a routine traffic stop, two of our host’s colleagues were shot - a stark reminder of the dangers they face daily. On a lighter note, our midday appointment was a ride on the South African police Water Wing. Launching from the container port in Cape Town we sped along the coast taking in views of Robben Island and Table Mountain, and the football world cup stadium, before cruising through the V&A harbour. Later that evening Jenkins and Peregrino invited us along on an operation targeting the local street racers. We had only been on the road for about 10 minutes as we spotted a car jumping a red light. The resulting pursuit ended with a collision. The rest of the evening was just as eventful with the Ghost Squad corralling a street racing cruise, and identifying a number of stolen and illegally modified vehicles. We also had time to return to ‘The Moon’ by night – a wholly different experience than in daylight. Bruce Lister

Bruce, Jo and Deon at Timour Hall.

Jackie and Jo on the Water Wing

Children on the Moon

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Police World Vol 58 No.2 2013