HIGHWAY PATROL
GEARED
FOR
ACTION

In September fifteen new BMWs and seven additional Toyota RunXs were added to the existing capacity of the SAPS Emergency Services in the Western Cape, enabling the Flying Squad to react swiftly to crime. The new BMW 320Ds were purchased by means of the provincial budget of the SAPS in the Western Cape and are destined to uphold law and order on the highways and byways through visible policing on identified priority routes. The vehicles will also be used in proactive operations to combat and prevent serious and violent crime by covering the known escape routes of criminals.

The history of the emergency services in the Western Cape started with the first police vehicle being fitted with a two-way radio, operating from Parow in 1974. During the following year most of the police vehicles in the Cape Peninsula were also fitted with radios. In 1984 the Flying Squad was formed with a complement of eight vehicles (Ford Cortina Ghias) operating from premises in Maitland, Cape Town. This location is a mere stone’s throw from where the SAPS provincial Radio Control Unit is currently situated.

The Flying Squad could since field between eight and eleven vehicles at a time, but they soon became overburdened. When Provincial Commissioner Mzwandile Petros took over the leadership of the SAPS in the Western Cape in August 2003, the Flying Squad’s vehicle fleet consisted of only standard-performance vehicles. This fleet was soon declared inadequate and all replacements have since been with high- performance vehicles - Toyota RunXs. At the beginning of 2004 the Flying Squad had fifteen vehicles available to do highway patrol and to attend crime scenes with. This made operational planning extremely difficult.

The new complement of BMWs for highway patrol, along with the seven additional Toyota RunXs will provide a patrol capability along the N1, N2, R300, M5, Lansdowne Road extension M5 towards Baden Powell/Khayelitsha, R44, N7, Vanguard Drive, Voortrekker Road and the M3 (Cape Town to Simon’s Town). The patrolling of these routes may be altered from time to time in accordance with the crime threat analysis.

One or two vehicles, depending on the route in question, will be operating on these routes on a 24-hour basis. The vehicles will be operationally controlled by Radio Control and will operate on the ten routes at patrol speed, except when in hot pursuit.