While a 50 year old man was found stabbed to death outside his home in Factreton on Monday, Kensington Community Policing Forum’s, Harry Guta says the crime level in the area is on the decrease. Guta explained that the most recent incident was an isolated domestic case but generally incidents of crime have gone down in recent weeks.

Since the case of an alleged serial killer in the area surfaced at the beginning of this year, residents have taken to social media as a means of sharing information amongst neighbours to promote the fight against crime. However, it is these platforms that Guta says is driving the perception that violent crime is spiralling out of control in the area.

“We have the street committees in place along with a very active neighbourhood watch that acts as a viable group to monitor the area. We work alongside police to address the gang activity in the area. The gangs are simply youth who have either dropped out of school or fallen victim to the social ills within society,” Guta added.

While the area has become safer in recent weeks, Guta said that through the platforms of social media, residents are perpetuating a different idea.

“We receive our statistics directly from police. Here we find unofficial individuals going on assumptions and sharing them on a social platform. I have the latest statistics with them and they show an evident decrease in reported crime activity in the area.” VOC (Ra’eesah Isaacs)