KEY POINTS
- The shooting rate has dropped by 30 percent in Hanover Park.
- In Cape Town since 2021, more than 1,670 firearms have been taken away.
- Sound Thinking technology helps officers respond to situations quickly by alerting them of gunshots.
In compliant with findings, Cape Town’s gang activity and shootings have seen a major decline.
Thanks to advanced technology and extra law enforcement focused on firearms, incidents involving guns in the city have shrunk by 20%.
Since the beginning of the year, police from the Safety and Security Directorate have confiscated 46 guns and over 300 pieces of ammunition at gang hotspot areas like Hanover Park, Manenberg, Nyanga and Lavender Hill.
Tech-driven and smart approaches to policing
Police have relied on sound thinking formerly shot spotter which detects gunshots and helps them locate where they are happening nearly instantly.
Since its introduction in January 2023, over 25,000 rounds have now been fired in the four communities.
A reduction in incidents to 224 and gunfire rounds to 546 in Hanover Park points to significant development.
Alderman JP Smith, who is the mayoral committee member for safety and security, stated that the good results came from the members of ShotSpotter who worked together as a multi-agency team.
“By overseeing the cases in our community’s courts and sharing information among departments, we can determine where and how often these incidents occur and police those areas more effectively,” Smith commented.
Reduction in crimes at Hanover park, collaboration in fighting crime
Working with the neighborhoods has contributed a lot to solving many cases. Police were able to arrest five suspects this week after receiving a ShotSpotter alert and reports from residents.
From 2021 to now, in areas under SoundThinking monitoring, the enforcement units have taken 705 firearms from criminals and resulted in 33 convictions. Yet, there are many crime cases still pending because ballistic reports are slow to complete.
Between January 2021 and January 2025, authorities seized 1,670 firearms both prohibited and replica in the city. They have secured 81 convictions using evidence from these cases, while 143 fire-related reports still await processing.
Smith pointed out that ShotSpotter plays a key role in using data for police work.
ShotSpotter alerts us that something is wrong, but it does not fix the problem. On its own, it won’t stop gun violence, but it offers currently available data for tackling threats. We provide the data to SAPS and we are trying to find lawyers who can give us help with the forensics cases.
